Community board gets back to business; allusion made to attempted ouster
CROMWELL’S first community board meeting since the attempted ousting of chairman Neil Gillespie was a mix of ‘‘business as usual’’ and criticisms and questioning from and of members.
Cromwell Community Board member Robin Dicey again slammed the council’s decision to approve extra hangars at the Cromwell Aerodrome, criticising Cromwell councillors Gillespie and Nigel McKinlay for voting for the proposal without seeking feedback from the board.
However, it emerged that Cr Calvert, who voted against the extra hangars, had also not told the board about the aerodrome issue.
She and Mr Gillespie acknow ledged the Cromwell councillors could have told the board about the issue, even though the council had the say legally over the future of the aerodrome.
But Mr Gillespie said it was unfair to criticise just him and Cr McKinlay, when Cr Calvert confirmed she had also not informed the board about it.
Last month’s attempted ousting of Cr Gillespie by board members Mr Dicey, Annabel Blaikie, Werner Murray and Cr Calvert was not mentioned directly at Tuesday’s meeting, but Cr McKinlay read out a statement as his member’s report restating his support for Cr Gillespie.
He also reminded that community boards operated as ‘‘open forums, transparent and subject to scrutiny from the public and media’’, and said ‘‘if groups of members meet and caucus away from the boardroom and arrive at decisions amongst themselves then that system is undermined. It leads to poor decisionmaking and a lack of transparency’’.
He said board members were elected or appointed ‘‘to make the best decisions we can on behalf of the Cromwell community . . . not put there to further personal ambitions or personal agendas’’.
Mr Dicey was scathing of a new code of conduct up for adoption by the council and all community boards, saying he thought it was vague, generic and unclear.
He also asked how the Cromwell board could support opposition from the Cromwell community to plan change 13, which would allow River Terrace Developments Ltd to develop a 900section subdivision opposite the Highlands corner.
About 400 submissions to the application have been received, almost all opposing it.
Cr Gillespie said the community board would need to make a formal resolution to make a submission and, procedurally, any submission from it would carry no more weight than a submission from a single person.
Council chief executive Sanchia Jacobs also said it was important to ask whether the 397 submissions represented the entire Cromwell community.
At the end of the meeting, the Otago Daily Times asked Cr Gillespie and deputy chairwoman Cr Calvert to comment on how the meeting went.
Cr Calvert refused to comment.
Cr Gillespie said it had been ‘‘business as usual . . . today’s meeting should have been no different from how it has been so far, and it wasn’t’’.