Divisions linger after votes on new regional council chairs
Supporters of Waikato Regional Council chairperson Pamela Storey will end up chairing four of five key ‘‘discretionary’’ committees.
It follows decisions made at committee meetings last Wednesday in Hamilton.
Deputy chairperson Bruce Clarkson told Stuff the selections followed the alleged ‘‘stacking’’ of committees with councillors who’d voted for Storey as chair, meaning her supporters had control over who would lead the committees.
He was concerned at the outcome, saying it was contrary to the overall percentages of people who’d voted for Storey and her supporters in recent local government elections.
Clarkson, a Waikato University professor, was one of seven councillors who didn’t support Storey’s leadership bid in October. She was successful when her name was drawn from a hat after a tied 7-7 vote between her supporters and those of council veteran Stu Kneebone.
Voting last week saw Storey supporters selected as chairs of the strategy and policy, integrated catchment management, environmental performance and finance and services committees. The climate action committee, however, will be chaired by Kneebone supporter Jennifer Nickel.
Kneebone and supporters Noel Smith, Kataraina Hodge, Tipa Mahuta and Angela
Strange all got deputy chairperson roles.
Clarkson’s analysis indicated that just five councillors who supported Kneebone in October’s leadership contest gained more votes than the seven Storey supporters (the other two Kneebone supporters were elected unopposed).
But Storey’s supporters ended up with more than 60% of discretionary committee seats and four out of five chair roles.
‘‘The mandate in terms of the election actually lies with us seven,’’ Clarkson said of the number of people who voted for Kneebone and his supporters in the elections.
He was concerned at the ‘‘anti-democratic’’ way things had turned out, ‘‘disenfranchising certain groups’’.
Storey, who has previously strongly denied the alleged stacking, described the outcome of last Wednesday’s discussions as ‘‘positive, collaborative, consensus-driven decisionmaking’’.
On Clarkson’s concerns about the results not being reflective of overall voting trends, she said: ‘‘I’m not sure what he means by that.’’
She said committee memberships had followed a ‘‘fairly extensive’’ process involving workshops, meetings and discussions.
‘‘I look forward to us all working together positively.’’