Proposed reshuffle sees Taylor in committee leadership role
City councillor Geoff Taylor is due to be made a committee deputy chairperson in a proposed reshuffle after being dropped from a planned similar role in late 2022 over comments he made on social media.
Mayor Paula Southgate is proposing that Taylor - a potential mayoral contender next year - be appointed deputy chairperson of the strategic growth and district plan committee.
“Councillor Taylor will be a strong advocate, alongside chair Sarah Thomson, for the support we need for our fast-growing city,” she said in a statement on Friday.
Taylor replaces councillor Ewan Wilson who’d been temporarily filling in.
In late 2022, not long after Southgate defeated Taylor in the race for mayor, she and senior council leaders decided he shouldn’t be deputy chairperson of the economic development committee as proposed. This followed allegedly “inappropriate” comments he made on social media towards other elected members.
What was allegedly said and to whom wasn’t revealed.
Then in February last year, Southgate apologised for using the word “inappropriate” in her comments at the time. Taylor was understood to have been concerned the use of that word could be taken to mean “sinister”.
Despite that apology, Taylor hasn’t had a chairperson’s or deputy chairperson’s role since, even though he’d been deputy mayor last term.
Southgate’s office said she wasn’t available yesterday to talk about her latest statement. But Taylor, a former deputy mayor last term, said he would be pleased to be confirmed in a strategic leadership role.
“I don’t think it does make sense not to have someone who’s got seven years experience [on council] and as a deputy mayor.”
He said he wasn’t annoyed it took council leadership this long to have a change of heart.
“Politics is politics and you take the good with the bad. You give it and you take it, and if you can’t take it you get out.”
Meanwhile, another potential mayoral contender in 2025, newly elected councillor Tim Macindoe, is due to pick up the deputy chairperson’s job of the infrastructure and transport committee, with the incumbent councillor Maxine van Oosten “voluntarily” stepping aside.
In her statement, Southgate thought Macindoe - a former National Hamilton West MP - was an experienced politician who would work well on big infrastructure and transport issues.
Macindoe has previously said his National Party connections could help the city in relations with the new Government.
Deputy mayor Angela O’leary was being appointed to a newly created role of creative ambassador to help promote the city’s cultural scene, Southgate said. The mayor’s proposals are up for endorsement at a council hui on Thursday.