Councillor reveals mould issue online

A Tauranga City councillor has taken to Twitter to lift the lid on the extent of the mould problem inside the council's staff building.

Some two months on from the toxic black mould outbreak, Councillor Steve Morris has tweeted photos and a comment after being given a look at the work being done behind the sealed areas.


Pictures of the mould inside Tauranga City Council's building. Photos: Steve Morris.

'A first look inside TCC's leaky staff building. The latest of a few little legacies left to us by previous councils,” tweeted Steve via the social networking site.

The photos inside Tauranga City Council's Willow Street premises show patches of the black mould, or Stachbotrys, along the floor and the skirting boards as well as areas of the ceiling, which is swollen from leaking.

This is the first real glimpse of the outbreak. Since December, council has been undertaking a full-scale survey of the building to establish the full extent of the mould, or Stachybotrys, following complaints of sickness by staff.

Operation Clean project manager Terry Wynyard told SunLive last month that more than 500 staff have now been relocated from the building since the mould was first discovered along with other contaminants deemed not as harmful.

'At the current time we are working toward 220 staff in the Westpac Building [Devonport Road] and I think we are up to 68 staff in the Star building [Durham Street],” said Terry.

'All staff except the communications, legal and democracy and strategic and corporate planning teams have been relocated, but they would have indirectly been affected by having to accommodate other staff.”

Surveyors are part way through surveying the building to identify where the water was leaking in, and will be finished the process sometime in March.

'At the end of March we will have all the reports back from the weather tightness point of view,” added Terry.

'That will tell us the full extent of the work that needs to be done.”

Council are yet to outline how the mould has manifested, but former councillor Bill Faulkner told SunLive at the time of the outbreak that the building has had a mould problem since at least 2001.

SunLive is currently awaiting comment from Steve Morris on the photos and his tweet.

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21 comments

Somewhat misleading Steve

Posted on 11-02-2015 12:01 | By Murray.Guy

'A first look inside TCC's leaky staff building. The latest of a few little legacies left to us by previous councils,” tweeted Steve via the social networking site.... Somewhat misleading. The City Council is the same today as it was yesterday and years back. Issues relating to the administration building have been well known BUT never has it been suggested a 'health risk' existed to staff, elected members or the public who use the building. The issue is an 'operational issue, staff management issue', not a governance policy type issue. Steve knows full well that elected members are not mould inspectors for the Council building any more they are for all public amenities. What Steve and fellow Councillors should be focusing on are the processes being undertaken by staff, the 'ebola type response'.


Another beat up???

Posted on 11-02-2015 12:59 | By Annalist

From Y2k to Bird Flu to imminent doom from a tsunami, there's nothing like a good overreaction to feed the minds of an uncritical public. The photo shows something no better or no worse than thousands of leaky buildings throughout the country. The actual link between this type of mould and actual illness is flaky. Here's what a scientist would do, a controlled experiment. Check on the health of people living in some randomly selected buildings. Then do tests and see if any traces of this mould are present in the building. I'm told that you are likely to find it in most buildings. Science over mumbo jumbo and really quite simple.


Legacy

Posted on 11-02-2015 13:00 | By friendee

Your legacy Steve may be putting this on the never to go away internet. Perhaps your leaders would have rather you asked before publishing these photos etc. Is there a certain project that you have been involved with that you are proud of? We can see how it pans out in 20 years or so


Agree with Murray Guy

Posted on 11-02-2015 13:09 | By Fonzie

This is not a councillor issue it is a staff issue Council has in house building inspectors who should have been able to sort this out long before it got this bad Councils job now is find out why and who is responsible We all know who will be paying for it


Wisechief

Posted on 11-02-2015 13:10 | By Wise Chief

This stupid money+time wasting Ebola type response idiocy is what Maori around BOP & elsewhere have had to put up with from Anglophillian money & land grabbing councils since their imposition via Colonialists supporters still camped about the city and towns here. Hence why Maori are seeking a seat at the decision's making table.WHY? For we are the permanents who always remain to pick up the pieces and to clean up the mess when all others have died and moved on to somewhere else. Is this tiny request then just a tad too much to ask via the many self appointed incumbent Marshall Law Officers who are Direct Descendants of those who came out to fight Maori and camped at Oripi-Europe to force them off their lands? This still occurs via forced impoverishment of their generations via increasing rates and reduction come restrictions of their natural food resources etc.


Hey!

Posted on 11-02-2015 13:44 | By sojourner

Hey y'all councilors and finger pointers, I'd like to point out that in all my years of having to move house and find another rental I have had to endure seeing MANY rental homes in this or far worse condition than what these photos show. Not just that, but it is then over to the person renting to try and clean it up and live with this as best as they can AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE while paying a far too high a rent for the place not fit for a dog house.Go on, get some working clothes on and scrub the place out with some bleach and get back to work. This is not an issue to make rate payers pay for this mess of a clean up.


FUD from councillor

Posted on 11-02-2015 14:11 | By dgk

Steve must know some special things. I understood that TCC built that building, not some prior council. This kind of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (aka FUD), is not what I expect from a highly paid councillor.


Annalist

Posted on 11-02-2015 15:23 | By YOGI BEAR

That's right, so they have had a couple of leaks, the floor got wet a bit, the reaction here is typically a complete overkill.


Troublemaker

Posted on 11-02-2015 15:23 | By Jitter

"Wisechief's" ranting and raving does not help the situation at all. He is obviously an out and out racist. Only "Maori" are ever in the right and all other ethnic groups in NZ should get out. This is real tunnel vision.He completely and conveniently forgets all the good things other ethnic groups have brought to NZ and how all groups including "Maori" have worked together in many instances to make NZ a better country.


Steve

Posted on 11-02-2015 15:26 | By YOGI BEAR

Good on you for making these pictures public, at long last we get to see a little of the pandemonium, saga, creative story around this. It is simply that the building needs a little repair work to remedy the leaks, all consequential problems solved. What we are looking at here is $4-5m spend up and drama sessions for perhaps a $100 spirit of silicon to stop the leaks.


Is that it..........

Posted on 11-02-2015 16:11 | By Smilarkie

I have inspected hundreds of houses over the years, and if this is all there is, then someone at the council has some explaining to do. To evacuate the whole building is a complete joke. Who are the staff members tasked in keeping an eye on all the council buildings? If they did their jobs properly, these small issues could have been fixed while even smaller. Too many people there just sipping on coffees. Get pro-active. It's what you are paid for.


incompetence

Posted on 12-02-2015 07:26 | By Captain Sensible

So.....council building inspectors approved the construction of this building and then having failed to do their job properly, expect the mugs they nickname "ratepayers" to bail them out. So we pay the salaries of these inspectors who failed to do their job. We pay for the building. We pay for all the inconvenience caused. And we pay for it to be fixed. Is there anything us mugs don't have to pay for?


Maybe...

Posted on 12-02-2015 09:32 | By Rate1

Perhaps Wise Chief was on that comet last night - given his rantings and ravings and not sticking to the subject matter.


But what will Steve Morris do?

Posted on 12-02-2015 10:16 | By Annalist

Good to see Steve releasing photos of the mould but the big question is what will he do about it? Does that level of mould really require the emergency evacuation of the building? I think there is a huge overreaction here and on the same basis why not evacuate virtually every building in Tauranga? Actually one good reason why not to evacuate every building is that there's no bottomless ratepayers pit of money to pay for the other buildings, surely?


What About

Posted on 12-02-2015 10:46 | By The author of this comment has been removed.

The library? We as ratepayers are now paying for a service that we are not getting. It seems council has forgotten that they are there to serve the people that pay their wages. No business would get away with this, but we are obligated to pay our rates irrespective of the service provided. Time to put the non-fiction section of our library in the art gallery and provide us with the service we are paying for.


Wisechief

Posted on 12-02-2015 12:13 | By Wise Chief

Jitter, thanks for exposing yourself as one of those die hard's local Anglophillian-Reppy-hybrids who don't want Maori even half breed ones to have a say over their own lands,seas & water ways and what the councils does on and around them while never bothering to consult but rather dictate like Anglophiles always do when engaging local Maoris. We know what happened in England where much of the infrastructure water etc is now owned by foreigners and yet here you have the audacity to call me a racist for defending my rights to have a small say over what happens within my own country left to me by my ancestors who discovered and settled it 5000 or so years ago. I mean most of you Anglo were tenent farmers before colonisation allowed you to come here to actually OWN land. The Maoris accommodated via signing Treaty to make legal.???


@ Wisechief

Posted on 12-02-2015 15:22 | By Captain Sensible

""5000 years ago"". Seems the maori "scholars" must have rewritten history (again) recently. Most historians agree that maori only arrived a few hundred years before Cook, but what do they know?!


Wise Chief

Posted on 12-02-2015 21:35 | By YOGI BEAR

I think you mean and at best 500 years ago, and no NZ was not "discovered" by the islanders they were all dropped off here by General Zheng He. Go read the past blogs for the full story. PS skip the bits where Pete and Robin talk about Maori myths and legends as they have already been noted as not true by Pete. Eliminating that will leave you nearer the truth i.e. most of the other bloggers.


More

Posted on 13-02-2015 16:08 | By Jitter

racist ranting by Wisechief. I agree that "Maori" should have their say over what happens to "their" lands but through the proper channels as everyone else does and not special consultations with them only. In most instances the council go out of their way to go out and consult with "Maori" (even "halfbreeds", your words not mine) over most matters. This does not happen with the rest of the ratepayers who have to submit their opinions to council at meetings held at the council chambers. So get your facts right. It should be the same system for all NZers not a special one for one ethnic group.


same system for all NZers

Posted on 14-02-2015 23:58 | By YOGI BEAR

Interesting and in fact that is what the real treaty says, you know the one that was signed and it was in Maori. It was translated from the Littlewood draft which was drawn up the dey or two prior, by Hobson and others.


Banging the old tin can again

Posted on 02-03-2015 09:46 | By drgoon

Who is this idiot 'Wise Chief'??? Your rant has no relevance to the article. Being a New Zealander who is proud of my mixed Maori, Pakeha, Pacific Island ethnicity I never fail to cringe when people like you bring out your old tin cup and start banging it again and again. If you are worth a grain of salt you would not accept an honorary position as such but stand for election on your own value and merit. But no, yet again you want the easy route. Circumventing proper election by your peers to have a biased input into the growth of our community as a whole encompassing all that is good about our area. Go stand on a corner somewhere else and those that think your comments are worth listening to will stop and listen.


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