Chu defends record
Christchurch City councillor Catherine Chu has failed to show up to half the number of briefings attended by her colleagues.
Briefings are closed to the public and are designed to give councillors an in-depth knowledge of an issue before making a decision at a public council meeting. They are not compulsory.
Chu is the National Party candidate campaigning to win the Banks Peninsula electorate, despite being elected as a firsttime councillor for the Riccarton ward in October last year. She was also elected to the Canterbury District Health Board at the same time.
James Gough, a potential 2022 mayoral candidate, also missed a third of the 33 workshops, where attendance was recorded, since October last year. However, he says the figures are inaccurate because he was at a number of briefings where he was listed as absent.
Figures supplied to The Press under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act show Chu missed 17 of the 33 briefings where attendance was recorded since October. It states Gough missed 11.
The other 14 councillors attended an average of 31 briefings each. James Daniels was the only councillor to go to all of them and councillors Melanie Coker, Yani Johanson and Jake McLellan missed one each.
Attendance was not recorded at another 14 briefings.
Attendance at full council meetings is near perfect for all councillors.
Chu defended her record, saying briefings were one way of keeping informed as a councillor, but were not the only way.
‘‘I spend most of my day out in our community talking to locals, businesses and community groups to better understand my community’s needs and to be able to make community-based decisions at council.’’
She said her general election candidacy had improved her understanding of issues confronting Cantabrians and would help her find solutions for her community.
‘‘I’ve always made clear that my commitments as an elected member is my top priority.’’
Chu has refused to forgo her six-figure councillor salary while campaigning because she believes she can carry out both roles effectively.
Gough said there were some inaccuracies with the figures because he could see from his diary some absences had been recorded incorrectly.
However, he said he did not need to go to every briefing because as a fourth-term councillor there were a lot of issues he was already aware of.
‘‘For me, doing my job is about being informed and understanding the issues and in a lot of cases briefings can be worthwhile for councillors who don’t have the background. I’ve been there a little longer than most.’’
Gough said being briefed for the sake of being briefed was not an effective use of time and if he had a question about an issue he
often went straight to the relevant staff member instead of sitting through a sometimes lengthy workshop.
Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel said every councillor was selfemployed, and they were accountable to their wards, not her, but she found briefings ‘‘incredibly beneficial’’ and did not like missing them. She valued the opportunity to meet informally with the technical experts, so she could ask questions for clarity and get an understanding and a sense from colleagues about how they felt about the issue.
‘‘You don’t want to be in a public environment for the first time asking questions because sometimes people are a bit embarrassed to ask the dumb questions but sometimes that is how you get to understand things.’’
Dalziel missed 10 briefings, but five of those were during the leave of absence she took to be with her husband, Rob Davidson, who died last month.
Councillor Sara Templeton said there was more to being a councillor than attending the formal meetings and the organisation needed to know who was attending briefings. ‘‘We’ve got to have that kind of accountability for our communities.’’
Daniels said he believed the briefings were valuable, especially for new councillors. ‘‘Common sense says the more you see and hear, the more you learn.’’
Councillors will earn between $108,424 and $113,424 this year, down from the usual $114,130 after they took a pay cut for six months in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.