Source: Auckland Council
Staff from council and council-controlled organisations such as Auckland Transport have been deployed externally and within the council to help in any way they can.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says he’s proud of the help council staff are providing to the COVID-19 response.
“We’ve deployed a number of staff already to meet critical community needs such as providing meals for rough sleepers and food parcels for people in financial difficulty because of COVID-19,” he says.
“We’re currently looking at ways more staff who have capacity due to the lockdown can help in the community.”
The council’s Licensing and Regulatory Compliance team has deployed 23 environmental health officers to support Auckland Regional Public Health Service with contact tracing work.
Other staff from across the council, including from Auckland Council Libraries, have assisted health agencies and are liaising with other response services.
A total of 23 council catering staff have also been deployed to help the Auckland City Mission provide 400 meals a day for the city’s rough sleeper community and those facing severe financial hardship.
“The council’s catering staff were keen to help in an area of real need and have been enthusiastic about using the time they had had freed up to help others,” Mayor Goff says.
Auckland Emergency Management, in scaling up its activation to respond to welfare needs across the region, is receiving help from council staff that normally work in other areas.
Group Controller Mace Ward says this is one of the benefits of a variety of skills and expertise to draw from when help is needed.
“We are able to draw in people from across the council group to respond to emergency situations like this. We have brought together experts from all sorts of areas – from our contact centre to manage welfare calls, to Te Waka Anga Mua ki Uta working with our Pouwhakarae team to work with Māori communities.”
Council staff have been deployed to the following:
Auckland City Mission
Auckland Emergency Management
Auckland Regional Public Health Service
Greenlane Clinical Centre
Northern Regional Health Coordination Centre
NZ Police
