Bid to stop anonymous councillors lost in vote

Falsifying identities on social media to comment about elected members or council issues has been raised within the Nelson City Council chambers.

A bid to prevent councillors from using pseudonyms to comment on council issues and its people through social media was lost.

The suggestion to amend the Nelson City Council’s media clause in the Code of Conduct was heard at Thursday’s ordinary meeting, after concerns were raised over the use of fake names on social media commentary.

The move came as the councillors looked to finalise the Code of Conduct this week.

Councillor Matt Lawrey brought the amendment forward, which was seconded by Luke Acland.

It said, ‘‘Elected members will not use anonymity or fake names to comment in online forums on council matters or council related matters.’’

The addition was to discourage anyone to remain anonymous while they used social media platforms to provide opinions, Lawrey said.

He said the suggestion was a result of a councillor admitting to using a fake name to comment on a council issue in the past, which was ‘‘cowardly and undemocratic’’.

‘‘I think this is a modern issue and I think it actually does the council no good when people do engage in this behaviour.

‘‘So I think that should be included in the Code of Conduct,’’ he said.

‘‘This is a practice that a lot of people engage in and I don’t think councillors should engage in it.’’

Lawrey admitted the clause would be ‘‘very tricky’’ to enforce.

But he said there were other aspects of the code that would be hard to police - like ‘‘we must be respectful to each other’’.

‘‘But I think the code should set out what we expect in terms of peoples’s behaviour and I have seen comments on Stuff stories that strike me as having come from elected representatives,’’ he said.

Mayor Rachel Reese said to raise the matter at such late notice ‘‘was not ideal’’.

‘‘You’ve had three months to bring this forward ... that in itself is not consistent with respectful behaviour through the code.

‘‘We’re allowing it today but it’s not good process to do these things on the fly.’’

A division for the amendment was called. Councillors Lawrey, Luke Acland, Kate Fulton, Brian McGurk, Stuart Walker and Mayor Rachel Reese voted in favour of the change.

Councillors Ian Barker, Mel Courtney, Bill Dahlberg, Paul Matheson, Gaile Noonan, Mike Rutledge and Tim Skinner voted against it. It was lost six votes to seven. Lawrey said after the meeting he continued to believe the addition was ‘‘appropriate’’. He said the votes against the clause was both disappointing and surprising.