Tight timing in Rimmington leadership case
Former Waikato Regional Council chairperson Russ Rimmington is pressing ahead with a judicial review of his ousting even though legal developments mean he may only get his old job back for a very brief period.
He’s also contemplating standing for re-election with a team of others on an anti-Three Waters platform.
The case has now formally been set down for a hearing in September, just over a month out from the local government elections in October.
Rimmington has claimed councillor Fred Lichtwark had a pre-determined view of the way he was going to vote on ousting him at a hui on May 9 and therefore should not have participated. If he had withdrawn, Rimmington says he would still be chairperson.
Through a High Court judicial review, he’s seeking to have the vote ruled invalid, his chairperson’s job back and costs.
Yesterday, the High Court in Hamilton confirmed the matter has been set down for September 1, about five weeks before the October 8 elections.
Rimmington confirmed he wasn’t being put off by the prospect of winning just a short time back in the chairperson’s saddle, saying ‘‘it’s important that right process is followed by councils’’.
‘‘It was always going to be tight,’’ he said.
He had applied for a priority fixture in May but Justice Mathew Downs declined.
Asked whether he had made up his mind whether he would stand again next term, Rimmington said he was still ‘‘waxing and waning’’ over the idea.
But he revealed he was looking at getting together a team of councillors of ‘‘similar mind’’ to stand on a ticket which had opposition to Three Waters reforms as its primary focus.