Shadbolt: ‘No’ to legacy report

Invercargill mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt has voted against a report that will be handed to the Department of Internal Affairs outlining progress at the city council.

Following concerns raised by Internal Affairs in August 2020, the council went about implementing a programme, Working on Working Together, to improve its governance performance.

Yesterday, councillors had the opportunity to endorse the final ‘‘legacy report’’ before it is sent to Internal Affairs.

Council staff member Jane Parfitt put together the legacy report from a series of reports and surveys carried out over the past 18 months. It suggests the city council has made good progress in many areas.

However, it highlights that there is still work to do in two areas in particular: mayoral leadership and developing a reputation as an established highperforming council.

When it came to elected members endorsing the report, Shadbolt was the only one to vote against the motion, despite him earlier moving the motion.

The mayor last week raised concerns that there were no questions in a survey that filtered into the legacy report regarding the relevant support for him as mayor. He described the criticism of him as a ‘‘celebrity roast’’.

Council chief executive Clare Hadley will now provide Internal Affairs with a copy of the legacy report and request a response for the council to consider at its meeting on May 24.

Meanwhile, two councillors have raised concerns about whether the council’s 2021-31 Longterm Plan is ‘‘too ambitious’’.

That question came during an Annual Plan public submission hearing yesterday, when in a unique twist Invercargill deputy mayor Nobby Clark submitted on behalf of the Invercargill Ratepayers Advocacy Group.

Clark said the group was against the proposed 7.78% rates increase and urged councillors to find ways to stick to the initial 4% forecasted increase.

During Clark’s submission, Councillor Ian Pottinger asked Clark whether he thought, after one year of the Long-term Plan, that it was no longer relevant and was in fact too ambitious.

‘‘Instead of applying BandAids, i.e. short-term rates increases for this term, should we actually be revisiting the big picture of the LTP? The current model of the LTP is actually not affordable,’’ Pottinger said.

Clark agreed with Pottinger’s assessment, saying: ‘‘Clearly we do.’’ He pointed to a $72 million cost increase for various capital projects in the past two years as one of the reasons why a rethink might be needed.

He personally believed the Branxholme water supply project was the council’s most pressing project, closely followed by the museum.

The city block project was too far down the track to make any changes, but other capital projects might have to be pushed back, Clark said. Included was stage two of the inner-city streetscapes work, he added.

The council will hold deliberations on the draft Annual Plan on May 17. After the council’s resolutions, final budgeting will be completed ahead of the adoption of the plan before the end of June.

It highlights that there is still work to do in two areas in particular: mayoral leadership and developing a reputation as an established high-performing council.