QLDC plans to increase CEO's borrowing limit to $100 million

A recommendation from Queenstown Lakes District Council staff at a full council meeting this Thursday proposes that the delegated borrowing limit for council CEO Mike Theelen is increased from $30 million to $100 million.

The justification given is the "cost of living" as well as "operational and capital cost" increases.

The report that councillors will vote on refers to local government borrowing rules that are based on the concept that "Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) delegates a broad range of responsibility, duties and powers to the Chief Executive. These delegations are documented and published on the QLDC website in the Queenstown Lakes District Council Register of Delegations."

"In the context of these borrowing values, it is the recommendation of officers that the Chief Executive’s delegation to commit to borrowing be uplifted to $100,000,000 to be able to approve the upcoming April refinancing and the expectation that borrowing will continue to grow through the Long Term Plan 2024-2034 which was adopted by Council in September 2024.

"If approved, the Chief Executive will in turn review the financial sub-delegation limits to other officers with an intent to apply a similar CPI increase to these limits. Whilst the overall volume of transactions has not significantly increased, the value of individual transactions has. This is reflected in the volume of transactions that have to be referred to a higher-level approver as they exceed an officer’s delegated financial limit."

"Therefore, this report seeks to increase the Chief Executive’s delegation beyond the original recommendation of the Audit, Finance & Risk Committee to “commit the Council to borrowing which has been approved in the Long Term Plan or Annual Plan to financial instruments for a maximum of $100,000,000 of principal plus the associated interest payments and where the borrowing complies with the Treasury Management Policy.”

You can read the staff report and recommendations here.

The current levels and proposed changes can be viewed here.

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