Minutes of a meeting of the Nelson Tasman Civil Defence Emergency Management Group
Held in the Nelson City Council Chamber, Floor 2A, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson
On Tuesday 30 March 2021, commencing at 9.30 a.m.
Present: His Worship the Mayor of Tasman T King (by audio-visual link), Her Worship the Mayor of Nelson R Reese (Chairperson) and Councillor J Edgar
In Attendance: Nelson City Council: Group Manager Corporate Services (N Harrison) and Governance Adviser (K Redgrove)
Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM): J Kennedy, K Solly, M Griffiths, K Anderson, L Swatton, R Gibson, R Pettersson
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA): S James (by audio-visual link)
Apologies : Cr S Bryant (Tasman District Council)
1. Opening, Welcome and Apologies
Her Worship the Mayor opened the meeting with a whakatauākī and thanked S James of NEMA for joining the meeting via audio-visual link.
The meeting adjourned at 9.41 am due to audio-visual issues and reconvened at 9.45 am.
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That the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group 1. Receives and accepts the apologies from Councillor Bryant for attendance and Mayor King for lateness. |
Nil.
4. Manager Emergency Management Report to CDEM - CEG 1 March 2021
At the request of Her Worship the Mayor, the attendees from CDEM introduced themselves.
Verbal updates were given on the following key topics.
Covid-19 Resurgence
S James outlined progress on the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations to their workforce. Her organisation were aware Covid-19 outbreaks were likely to occur over the coming 12-24 months and measures would be in place to move up response levels if required. The focus was on areas where there were managed isolation/quarantine facilities, based on physical boundaries in those specific regions. Assistance from groups in those regions was being sought and workshops would be facilitated.
She said that NEMA accepted not all regions will need in depth planning but would still be keen to receive information from CDEM groups that could assist with iwi considerations, information about potentially isolated communities and any other local issues they may not be aware of.
In response to a question raised, J Kennedy confirmed that there had been informal engagement with iwi around what their involvement may be.
It was suggested that Council staff, particularly those connected with the provision of essential utilities such as water supply, should be included as ‘essential workers’ for the purpose of vaccination rollout. S James confirmed she would raise this with her peers.
J Kennedy confirmed that CDEM had a resurgence plan in place, which had in mind the location and functioning of community based assessment centres should Nelson Tasman have a resurgence.
Her Worship the Mayor commented on the recent issue concerning the booking of a community function room to host those who had strong anti-vaccination views. She said the potential for misinformation is on the rise and that both CDEM and NEMA would need to be mindful of this. Mayor King mentioned that Golden Bay in the Tasman District was one of the highest non-vaccination areas nationally. J Kennedy anticipated there would be other such ‘hotspots’ and that consultation through the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board (NMDHB) led multi-agency meetings would be a good forum to raise these issues.
Tsunami Event – 5 March 2021
S James provided an update from R Ball, National Operations Manager who recognised that the multiple text alert systems that were deployed had created some issues that CDEM would need to learn from and was flagged to be discussed at the forthcoming Emergency Management meeting in May.
She said the debrief and review process was underway and would ultimately report to the Minister. Once this information had been considered, the Minister would publish a press release.
J Kennedy advised CDEM had carried out a debrief of the event, identified actions arising and that relevant parts would be communicated to NEMA. He said the event developed quickly and response agencies were reliant to some extent on the media for updates. They had elected not to deploy an emergency mobile alerts for the region.
Brief Introduction to the Emergency Management Team
Attendees from CDEM, who had introduced themselves earlier in the meeting, expanded on the portfolios connected with their respective roles.
Her Worship the Mayor referenced her recent visit to the Emergency Operations Centre in Richmond and said this had been very useful.
S James reported that NEMA were embarking on their regulatory framework review and she described the workstreams and programmes flowing from that. An information pack would be developed and circulated. She said the leadership structure is now fully in place and that two fixed term Deputy Chief Executive roles would focus on emergency management and strategic enablement respectively.
In response to a question raised by Her Worship the Mayor, S James advised she anticipated the new draft Bill would be introduced to Parliament in October and confirmed there would be engagement with interested parties prior to that.
J Kennedy updated the meeting on forthcoming workshops. He said there had been a lot of work with iwi partnerships and that his intention was to report on iwi appointments to the next CDEM meeting.
He went on to confirm that budgets for this financial year were tracking well. A $1M claim had been submitted to NEMA relating to expenses arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. S James commented she would follow up progress with that claim.
J Kennedy noted comments around key accessibility principles for presentation of emergency management documents to be published and would follow up with the publishers to discuss recommendations.
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That the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group 1. Receives the report Manager Emergency Management Report to CDEM - CEG 1 March 2021 (R23763) and its attachment (A2599912).
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That the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group 1. Confirms that S James of NEMA, will be in attendance for item 1 of the Confidential Agenda.
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Item |
General subject of each matter to be considered |
Reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter |
Particular interests protected (where applicable) |
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1 |
Appointment of Alternate Local Controllers
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Section 48(1)(a) The public conduct of this matter would be likely to result in disclosure of information for which good reason exists under section 7 |
The withholding of the information is necessary: · Section 7(2)(a) To protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of a deceased person |
The meeting went into confidential session at 10.24 am and resumed in public session at 10.25 am.
Restatements
It was resolved while the public was excluded:
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1 |
CONFIDENTIAL: Appointment of Alternate Local Controllers |
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5. Agrees that Report (R23748) and the decision only be made publicly available once negotiations are concluded; and 6. Agrees that Attachment (A2598360) remain confidential at this time.
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Her Worship the Mayor closed the meeting with a whakatauākī.
There being no further business the meeting ended at 10.26 am.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings by resolution on 27 July 2021:
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Resolved CDEM/2021/008 |
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That the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group 1. Confirms the minutes of the meeting of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, held on 30 March 2021, as a true and correct record. |