Mayor allows board roles
Nelson mayor Rachel Reese has clarified that Nelson city councillors can apply to be directors of Nelson Airport or Port Nelson.
The Tasman District Council (TDC) recently voted to retain the possibility of elected councillors joining the boards of council controlled companies like the Nelson Airport or Port Nelson. That was despite the office of the Auditor General saying such councillor roles ‘‘should be the exception’’ and
TDC staff advice that Nelson City Council’s policy ‘‘does not’’ allow for the appointment of elected members.
However, in her first mayoral report of the year
Reese said she was ‘‘surprised’’ by this advice.
She said the Nelson council policy had been interpreted as barring councillors from applying for board roles even through an independent recruitment process, which ‘‘in my view is not the case’’.
‘‘I was on [Nelson City] Council at the time this policy was developed and adopted, Kerry Marshall was the mayor of the day ... prior to that time there were political appointments to companies, so essentially in the process of forming the council the Mayor of the day would bring up the report, and I think at the time was appointed to the Port Company and to the Airport company. ‘‘I did not support that and neither did Kerry Marshall, we felt very much it should be based on skills and ability ... so the policy was changed to say ‘no that can’t happen’.’’
However, she said changing the policy to remove political appointments to the board did not mean councillors were not able to apply through ‘‘a competitive recruitment process’’.
‘‘If you were to make it to the shortlist for an interview and you were to be the best candidate ... I see no reason why you could not be appointed, but you cannot get a direct appointment in a political process.’’
She said recruitment processes for board memberships or directorial roles at the Nelson Airport and Nelson Port Company were ‘‘extremely robust’’. ‘‘I’m confident, in terms of the criteria established, the measure of potential for any bias is very low.’’
The advice from the Office of the Auditor General is that ‘‘appointing elected members to CCO [Council Controlled Organisations] boards should be the exception’’ and ‘‘subject to the same selection criteria as for independent directors’’.
Nelson Airport Ltd is a Council Controlled Trading Organisation, with Tasman District councillor Mark Greening as director. Port Nelson Ltd is covered by the Port Companies Act, but both Nelson City and Tasman District councils use the same policy and procedure for director appointments. Both are owned 50/50 by the councils.