Bureaucrats say “no” to pleas for cheap leases
BY DIANA WORTHY
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Facilities benefiting the Waiheke community will have to dig deep to pay leases if Auckland City bureaucrats win the day at a meeting next week.
Auckland City Council officers want new commercial hybrid leases for the community cinema, community art gallery and the Waste Resource Trust, which are based in council-owned buildings at Artworks, in Oneroa.
They have decided all three already benefit from commercial activities as well as providing community facilities.
The recommendation has been strongly opposed by the Waiheke Community Board.
But council officers are going ahead anyway, with written reports on each included in council’s community services committee agenda next Tuesday prior to a vote.
Hauraki Gulf Islands’ councillor Denise Roche is a member of the committee but will be unable to speak about or vote on leases for the cinema or resource trust due to a declared conflict of interest.
Waiheke Community Board chairman Tony Sears has confirmed deputy chairman Herb Romaniuk will be at the meeting to argue the case for community leases.
If councillors decide to ignore the board and support the recommendation it means all three island facilities will have to find extra cash to pay for commercial/community hybrid leases, backdated to July last year.
Community leases usually cost around $500 per year.
The cinema trust would have to pay $1,419 in the first year, $2,838 in the second, and $4,300 until the lease ends in 2014.
The art gallery would be charged $2,409 in the first year, $4,818 in the second, and $7,300 for the next three years.
The Waste Resource Trust would be offered a slightly different deal with charges ranging from $660 in the first year to $2,000 from years three to five.
It could also get a reduction to fund its own proposal for a new community energy project.
All costs are subject to GST.
Ms Roche says she will be speaking and voting on the art gallery lease and believes council’s policy to be flawed.
“I think the hybrid lease has been manipulated to disadvantage really good community facilities.”
- Waiheke Marketplace
