Q’town Consultant Paid $294,000 by Invercargill Council While Working In Taranaki

Crux in Queenstown broke an interesting story, here is a preview. Full story link here.

Our questions relating to Ms Paterson’s work with the Invercargill City Council (ICC) have now been answered (in part) after the intervention of the council’s chief executive, Clare Hadley. Prior to that council staff had failed to meet various official information request deadlines.

The ICC has paid Ms Paterson, via her company JALP, $294,157 since January 2021 for various project management roles that the council says were handled via a procurement process that included a declaration by Ms Paterson that she, via JALP, had the capacity to do the work, despite the full time New Plymouth stadium project lead role that is still in progress.

ICC chief executive Clare Hadley told Crux:

“ICC is aware that JALP, as with other consultants, has a number of other projects on which they may be working. In accepting the appointment there is a representation that the consultant has the capacity to meet the required timeframes to complete the work required.

“ICC is not aware of the terms of any engagement of JALP and/or Jendi Paterson by the Taranaki Stadium Trust and I refer you to that entity for further information.”

Crux has published the latest response from the Taranaki Stadium Trust further into this story, but first it is important to share details of a new Paterson project at the Southland District Council (SDC), also based in Invercargill, where council staff will only answer Crux questions via an official information process that will take another 20 working days.
Full story link here.