Wellington Airport. Photo: Supplied / Wellington Airport
Wellington City Council's chief financial officer Andrea Reeves says it is important the community are aware that both the sale and a partial sale of Wellington Airport are still on table.
Last month, the council voted against selling its airport shares and must now find a different way to pay for its long-term plan, with money raised from it set to be used to establish an investment fund.
Following the vote, Wellington mayor Tory Whanau told the councillors there would have to be cuts to the council's capital programme.
Council staff had warned in documents prior to the vote that if the council stopped the sale it would have to consider two scenarios.
One would be almost doubling their debt ceiling from $272 million to $500m and cutting capital project spend by $400m; the other would be tripling the council's debt ceiling to $750m and slashing capital spend by $600m.
City councillor Sarah Free, who supports the sale, asked if a partial sale option was still a consideration at a briefing on Tuesday.
Reeves said that would be confirmed in the new year, as councillors consider which options to put out for public consultation.
She said it would still be stressed selling the shares was not the council's preferred option, and the reasons why, but it was important to highlight a full or partial sale of shares were still "reasonable options".
The council's new Crown observer Lindsay Mckenzie starts work on Wednesday. He was not at the meeting, but told RNZ he sat in on some of it remotely.
Previously, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Wellington's council was a "shambles".
At the time, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said he was seeking advice from officials on the options available to him and the thresholds for action against the city council.
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