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28. 5. 97
ROADING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SUB-COMMITTEE
Meetings of the Roading Professional Services Sub-Committee
were held on 26 September 1996 and 24 April 1997
PRESENT: Councillors David Close (26/9/96 only),
Newton Dodge, Gordon Freeman and Denis O'Rourke.
APOLOGY: An apology for absence was received from Councillor David Close for the 24 April 1997 meeting.
The Committee reports that:
PART A - MATTERS REQUIRING A COUNCIL DECISION
1. ROADING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RR 2796
| Officer responsible |
Author |
| City Streets Manager |
Mark Gordon |
| Corporate Plan Output: Roading Professional Services |
This matter has arisen because of recent changes to the Transit New Zealand Act. A number of changes were effected through the last amendment to this Act, including the progressive contracting of minor and ancillary road maintenance work, LATEs matters and the consideration of professional services.
In particular, Section 28 of the Act requires all territorial authorities to give "due consideration" to the advantages and disadvantages of contracting out their roading professional services before using their "own employees and in-house resources". This process must be conducted by 30 June 1997 otherwise Transfund is obliged to withhold financial assistance for those services.
This matter was reported to the Strategy and Resources Committee in May 1996. A sub-committee comprising Councillors Close, Dodge, Freeman and O'Rourke was formed to consider these issues and report to the Council prior to 30 June 1997. The sub-committee met twice during this period and at its last meeting considered the staff report and attachments. The report has been separately circulated to Councillors with the agenda for the present meeting.
The services in question cover a wide range of activities currently delivered by the City Streets and City Design Units, in particular:
The sub-committee was required by the legislation to consider the advantages and disadvantages of contracting out roading professional services under six criteria, all prescribed in the legislation:
These are all detailed for each activity type in the report.
The Council is only required by the legislation to conclude a "process of due consideration". Transfund may audit this process and in so doing will be guided by an "audit test" document which is attached to the report. Any decisions made by the Council cannot however be questioned.
After carefully considering the City Streets Manager's report, the sub-committee concluded that there was no driving imperative to change the way the Council's roading professional services are currently delivered, with the need to retain operational flexibility being the most important consideration.
Recommendation: 1. That the Council at its May meeting give due consideration to the issues discussed in the City Streets Manager's report on the balance of the provision of in-house and external roading professional services.
2. That no significant change be made at this time to the balance of roading professional services undertaken in-house/externally but that there be flexibility to use a mix of in-house and external services on a job-by-job basis at the discretion of the Unit Manager.
3. That periodic market testing of capital works projects professional services undertaken in line with 2 above be used as a source of information to ensure that internal professional services have an appropriate balance of quality and price competitiveness.
The meeting concluded at 2.20 pm
CONSIDERED THIS 28TH DAY OF MAY 1997
MAYOR