A new deputy mayor emerges
There was no blood on the floor when Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt anointed Rebecca Amundsen his new deputy on Tuesday. Any spillages had long since been mopped up, save perhaps those traces still congealing around the political wounds to the torso of her predecessor Darren Ludlow.
Shadbolt and all except one of his councillors, Lindsay Abbott, had previously voted in secret that they wanted Ludlow out of the deputy’s role. That quiet wee vote was never formally invoked because Ludlow, a week later, resigned on the grounds that he wanted to concentrate on other council duties (of which he does have many). And he asserts he had made and announced that decision without knowing of the anti-him meeting.
Why did the mayor and councillors spin on him? Sorry, they can’t say. To bring the reason or reasons into the public sphere would mean being accountable for them.
Shadbolt says that having subsequently received a letter from Ludlow’s lawyer pointing out the potential consequences of any defamatory statements, and having sought advice from the council’s own lawyer and the chief executive Richard King, he has decided to stay silent. So now civic life goes on, albeit under such dim illumination as the council is minded to permit.
On the face of it, Amundsen is a sensible choice for a largely thankless role, much of which entails showing up for ceremonial duties in the full knowledge most in the the audience will be faintly disappointed it’s not Shadbolt. Otherwise the job entails mostly background backup work that tends to be completely ignorable unless something goes interestingly wrong. She’s been a comparatively controversy-free figure, active in the community. Shadbolt might reasonably have seen her as a safe-enough pair of hands and lacking in signs of naked ambition or capacity to unseat him - something for which he seems to be watchful, having previously written, during time of antagonism with Ludlow’s own predecessor as deputy, Neil Boniface, about the inevitability of deputies trying to take over.
Note, if you will, that the council on Tuesday voted to ‘‘receive and accept’’ Ludlow’s formal letter of resignation but merely ‘‘noted’’ Shadbolt’s decision to appoint Amundsen. On that matter their consent wasn’t sought. It’s technically possible they could overturn the decision at the next council meeting if enough of them wished to, though there’s scant sign of any such desire. They all seem to want to put the whole inglorious business behind them. And the public who might believe they are entitled to know more can just run along.