Kāpiti councillor James Cootes has put in place an internal Mahara Gallery Project review focusing on how the shortfall in operational funding was not brought to the attention of councillors.
In January 2022 the Mahara Gallery chair wrote to the former chief executive outlining a budget shortfall of $400,000 per year. This shortfall was the result of the project moving from a voluntary staff structure to a professional structure, increased opening hours and an increased number of exhibitions.
Council staff proposed funding the project with $1.3 million dollars for three years which was rejected by councillors. Instead councillors opted to fund $400,000 towards the gallery operating costs with the condition that the Mahara Gallery will work with staff to achieve a sustainable business and funding model for the gallery, noting that any ongoing funding is subject to an Annual Plan or LTP process.
Cr Rob McCann says what is most concerning is that councillors were kept in the dark about a $1.3 million budget hole. “The former Chief Executive knew of this shortfall, the portfolio holder (Councillor Janet Holborow) and council staff all knew, but no one thought to alert councillors, or have this discussion at the appropriate time, which would have been in February or in the Long Term or Annual Plan process.”
Cr McCann says the majority of councillors agreed to the amended solution as they all want the Gallery to succeed. “But as the governance body, we need to be informed. That is why I’ve been calling for transparency to be brought back to council.”
He says to ensure this never occurs again, an internal review has been agreed upon with the only councillor speaking against the review being the Deputy Mayor Cr Holborow being concerned that the review shouldn’t become too large and draw resources away from projects.
“Locking in the funding for Mahara Gallery is in effect a .5% rates rise,” says Cr McCann. “Given one of the most pressing concerns for our community are rates rises, it was completely unacceptable that councillors were almost excluded from the decision-making process and the public should rightly be concerned. Any business plan that we are expected to fund requires the agreement of councillors. We can’t just write blank cheques and we need to be assured every stone has been turned to see whether there are options for reducing the burden on ratepayers.”
