How to Waste $37.5 Million Without Owning a Thing — Taupō Council Edition.
30th October 2025
Written by:
Disclaimer
This article is based on publicly available information, official LGOIMA responses, and Taupō District Council records. It represents the author’s analysis and opinion on matters of public accountability and governance.
All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information at the time of publication.
Any statements regarding individuals relate solely to their public roles and decision-making capacity within local government.
If you have heard Duncan Garner talk about Taupō District Council’s new offices, you have probably heard the wrong numbers.
I have seen the paperwork, the LGOIMA releases, the invoices, and the lease figures. The facts are clear.
This is not rumor; it is evidence.
And it is serious.
The $1.5 Million Lease That Does Not Fit
Taupō District Council’s headquarters at 67 Horomātangi Street, He Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa, was meant to symbolize partnership between council and Ngāti Tūwharetoa.
Instead, it has become an expensive game of musical chairs.
According to official figures:
- Base rent: $1,323,538.80 plus GST
- Parking: $50,700
- Operating costs: $35,491.31 per month (approximately $425,895 a year)
- Relocation : $58,452
- Fit out : $5.9 Million
That is almost $2 million a year for a building that cannot hold its own staff.
There are 430 employees but only about 180 desks available.
Even with approximately 230 people working on-site, the building is at capacity.
Staff are sharing desks, rotating workdays, or working from home, not because it is modern or flexible, but because there is nowhere to sit.
This building is not fit for purpose, yet ratepayers are locked into paying for it until most of us have retired.
The Councillor in the Middle
Once again, Councillor Yvonne Westerman’s name appears in the paperwork.
Her company, Westerman Property Solutions Ltd, handled the lease as the agent for the landlord, Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa Limited Partnership.
Even if she did not personally sign the lease, her firm may have earned a commission or management fee.
That is a direct commercial connection to a public contract she benefits from maintaining.
At best, it shows poor judgment. At worst, it is profit from public money.
It is not the first time her name has appeared where council business meets private gain.
In my earlier post, I Didn’t Mean to Find This But Now I Can’t Unsee It, she was linked to subdivision decisions later marketed by her own company.
Now her business sits squarely between ratepayers and a multi-million-dollar lease.
Different deal, same pattern.
This 25-year lease was approved under former Taupō District Council Chief Executive Gareth Green, who has since taken up the same role at New Plymouth District Council.
Before leaving Taupō, Green signed off a deal that now locks ratepayers into paying millions for a building they will never own.
No ownership. No exit strategy. No capacity to expand.
It is not the first financial controversy to follow his name.
After his move to New Plymouth, questions were raised about a separate accounting blunder that hit headlines only a few months ago.
So yes, the man who short-changed Taupō ratepayers has already skipped town and is now running someone else’s.
That is not future-proofing. It is future-trapping with a forwarding address.
All Cost, No Asset
After spending nearly $5.9 million on the internal fit-out, the council still cannot fit its own staff inside. The building was never designed to accommodate 430 employees, and it shows.
The only thing operating flawlessly seems to be the $600 coffee machine purchased with ratepayer money, and I’m sure it makes an excellent flat white.
If Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa Ltd Partnership ever sells the building, the council owns nothing. No equity. No buy-back clause. No fallback.
The rent will simply keep flowing to the next landlord for the next two decades, a 25-year lease with nothing to show for it.
The $90 Million Question
Here is what makes this worse.
Council has access to about $90 million in reserve funds, enough to have built a modern civic center outright.
Instead, it chose to pour millions into rent for a building it will never own and that is already too small.
No asset.
No foresight.
No accountability.
The Bottom Line
This is not a small oversight.
It is a pattern of decision-making that treats public money like pocket change.
A council that signs 25-year leases without ownership, approves conflicts without transparency, and calls overcrowding “collaboration” does not need another review.
It needs a conscience.
A round of applause for Taupō District Council and its empty-bucket mentality.
A masterclass in morally short-sighted governance.
If there were awards for spending without stewardship, Taupō would already have it framed in the foyer.
Bones Appétit.
Amendment and Legal Note (added 3 November 2025):
This post has been reviewed in light of the Defamation Act 1992 (New Zealand). The content is based on verifiable public records, official council documentation, and LGOIMA responses. Commentary is presented as honest opinion on matters of public interest, consistent with Sections 8–10 and 16 of the Act. No part of this publication is intended to defame or cause personal harm.
Sources
- Taupō District Council LGOIMA Response – Lease details and cost breakdown for He Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa, released September 2025.
- Taupō District Council Organisational Overview (2025) – Staffing and building capacity figures.
- Council correspondence with Westerman Property Solutions Ltd, confirming role as leasing agent for Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa Limited Partnership.
- Taupō District Council Annual Report 2023–2024 – Financial data and capital-works allocations.
- Public commentary and statements by Chief Executive Gareth Green on council property decisions, 2024–2025.
- Previous blog post: I Didn’t Mean to Find This But Now I Can’t Unsee It — Council Conflicts (August 2025).
- Previous blog post: Inside the Machine — What 430 Staff and 9 Comms People Tell Us About Taupō District Council (October 2025).