Otago Regional Council (ORC) generated an operating surplus of $9.246M over the past year, as outlined in its Annual Report 2024-25.

Signing off at ORC’s last meeting for the triennium, chair Gretchen Robertson said it had been a good solid year, and thanked ratepayers for their investment.

Dunstan ward councillor Gary Kelliher was the only one to comment about the annual report, saying the “quite substantial surplus” was a one-off, and expressed concern about it.

He questioned whether the surplus could reflect work not being done, and said he wouldn’t be happy to see that level coming through in future annual reports.

Gary is part of the ‘Vision Otago’ group, which has referred to “excessive staff numbers” and 31 percent increases in those being paid over $100,000.

The group says ORC’s total staff numbers have increased from 346 employees to 367 in the past year.

“… and this is despite the government halting all planning progress, while it finalises its resource management reforms,” the group said.

The number of ORC staff earning $100,000-plus has jumped from 148 to 194 – a 31 percent increase in the past year.

In her final speech for the triennium, Gretchen said the regional council had been involved in a much heavier workload over the past few years “than ever before”.

She said there had been quite a deliberate shift in the way the ORC operated, including the way it supported many community initiatives across the region.

She gave the example of Lake Hayes near Queenstown, where staff had done “a heap of work” with the local community to improve water quality, including increasing the flows into the lake.

She said the report shows progress across core services, prudent financial management, and investment in community-led initiatives.

A proposed average rate increase of more than 13 percent was reduced to 5.5 percent and Gretchen said she was proud the council had managed to reduce the rates burden and still deliver on what it had promised.

This past year 75 percent of ORC’s service delivery measures were fully achieved, and 86 percent were either ‘achieved’ or ‘substantially achieved’.

This is a significant improvement on the previous year, when ORC said many of its service delivery targets were missed.

Gretchen said the council was proud of “the record levels of public transport use, the success of community-led workshops, and the strong results in compliance, flood protection, and emergency management”.

During the year ORC had to pause notification of its Land and Water Regional Plan and related work, and it had also begun preparing for changes to other significant legislation.

Read the full ORC 2024/2025 Annual Report here.

Have a story to share or comment to make? Contact [email protected]