A stuff article about the 16th April Water Company meeting suggested things seem to be on track. But are they ? And did the Board think they are ?

It was interesting to read in a stuff article about the 16^th April Water Company meeting that things seem to be on track. Like any start up organisation it would be expected there will be challenges getting up and running, and our team who were at the meeting noted there were some issues, and what some of those issues are.

There were discussions in the meeting about what funding sources will be used for the Company, the Statement of Expectations being due for a decision by the NPDC on 30^th April**, new branding is underway, cashflow forecasts have been done and service level agreements will need to be done.

**Note: The Alliance were due to speak on 30^th April about the Statement of Expectations, but the Council meeting for the SOE has been altered and we will now speak on Wednesday 6^th May.

Some things mentioned in discussions which got our teams attention were:

• The Board mentioning the lack of detail and specifics in their documents which they need to be able to make decisions. (A bit like our agenda’s with no specifics and detail).
• There are a lot of issues on the risk report and the Board can’t really tell if the risk issues are getting better or worse the way this is being reported.  There are a number of things with an amber colour (like a traffic light) and they should be in green. Things like resourcing, staff levels, the right people in the right places and cashflow were mentioned with discussions.
• The Board mentioned no external communications are taking place and other regions already have communication happening out to the public.
• It was noted the Water Company asked the NPDC if they could copy and share NPDC water documents. There were discussions this would not work smoothly with a number of the documents.
• With the setting up of Service Level Agreements with the NPDC, the Water Company asked if they could share the Te Tiriti reporting resources to try to keep costs down. NPDC has advised this is not possible so mention was made the Water Company will have to set up their own Te Tiriti reporting function. (We’re not sure what this is, so we will ask).
• There was talk about NPDC staff who have been seconded to the Water Company short term. The staff are not sure what is happening with their positions. At this stage at the end of June they will not have a position with the Water Company, but they also don’t know if they are returning to a position at the NPDC.
• Staff are feeling quite unsettled and there was mention e-mails are going back and forward with staff concerns. The Board asked to be copied in on the concerns being raised by staff and made the comment - how can they alleviate concerns if they don’t know what is going on.
• Board meetings have been happening by Zoom to keep costs down but there was a  discussion about the Board attending a meet and greet with local water staff who are feeling unsettled with all the changes happening with the water positions.

Also, we liked the name WaterCo1 – but it is now official the new name is Wai Hononga Water Services Limited. On the agenda was a letter to be written to Iwi to thank them for the name.

This is a link to the agenda for anyone who may like to see the WSCCO Establishment Risk Register - FY25-26. Scroll down to the end of the agenda for the chart.

https://www.npdc.govt.nz/media/sinfcspk/board_pack.pdf

That was the first Water Company meeting our team had a chance to sit in on. We hope to be able to keep across how things develop from here.