Minutes of Council - 16 May 2019

Minutes of an extraordinary meeting of the Nelson City Council

Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson

On Thursday 16 May 2019, commencing at 1.05p.m.

Present: Her Worship the Mayor R Reese (Chairperson), Councillors L Acland, I Barker (via audio), M Courtney, B Dahlberg, K Fulton, M Lawrey, P Matheson, B McGurk, G Noonan, M Rutledge, T Skinner and S Walker

In Attendance: Chief Executive (P Dougherty), Group Manager Infrastructure (A Louverdis), Group Manager Environmental Management (C Barton), Group Manager Community Services (R Ball), Group Manager Corporate Services (N Harrison), Group Manager Strategy and Communications (N McDonald), Team Leader Governance (R Byrne) and Governance Adviser (E Stephenson)

The meeting was adjourned from 1.05pm. until 2.04p.m.

Opening Prayer

Councillor Skinner gave the opening prayer.

1. Apologies

There were no apologies

2. Confirmation of Order of Business

There was no change to the order of business.

3. Interests

There were no updates to the Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.

4. Public Forum

There was no public forum.

5. Mayor's Report

Her Worship the Mayor spoke to the item on the agenda advising she did not bring the recommendation to the table lightly. She said that, like other Councils who were listening very closely to their communities, she was hearing a different voice from what was heard two to three years ago, with a significant difference from five years ago.

She noted that the Nelson region had suffered from two Civil Defence emergencies in less than two years. Following her trip to Denmark in 2018 she reflected on the urgency for Council to address climate change and the way to take the community with it. She noted that Denmark took the quadruple helix approach to problem solving – representatives from government, business, research science and education along with the community being included on Committees and Groups.

Her Worship the Mayor asked Council to support the recommendation to declare a Climate Emergency.

6. Declaration of Climate Emergency

Document number R10219, agenda pages 4 - 12 refer.

Moved by Her Worship the Mayor, seconded by Councillor Fulton

Recommendation

That the Council

1. Receives the report Declaration of Climate Emergency (R10219) and its attachment (A2191324); and

2. Declares a climate emergency (A2191324); and

3. Requests the Chief Executive to develop a programme of Council actions that will support the aforementioned declaration and that this be included in the Council Annual Plan Deliberations report.

Her Worship the Mayor/Fulton

Group Manager Strategy and Communication, Nicky McDonald, presented the report and confirmed that in terms of Council’s Significance and Engagement Policy the report was assessed as of medium significance. She clarified that the financial impact of $100,000 was made up of $58,000 in the Long Term Plan 2018-28 plus an additional $42,000 in the Draft Annual Plan 2019/20. She noted that a programme of actions would be outlined at the Deliberation meeting on 4 June, at which time Council could indicate if it wished to invest in further work. She noted the recommendation was a declaration of leadership that would create momentum to get the community and others on board.

Group Manager Environmental Management, Clare Barton, answered questions on engagement with Māori and advised that the key issue of climate change was clearly articulated in the Annual Plan. Iwi had expressed views on climate change as part of the Iwi Working Group process.

When asked if the report had been reviewed by legal advisers, Ms McDonald confirmed that internal and external advisers had reviewed the report and Local Government New Zealand had also provided input.

Councillor Walker, in moving an amendment advised that he supported the recommendation but did not believe it was responsible to make a decision on two days’ notice.

The meeting adjourned from 3.03p.m. until 3.24p.m.

Moved by Councillor Walker, seconded by Councillor Noonan

That the Council

1. Receives the report Declaration of Climate Emergency (R10219) and its attachment (A2191324); and

2. Defers the declaration of a climate emergency (A2191324) for consideration at the Annual Plan Deliberations meeting on 4 June 2019; and

3. Requests the Chief Executive to develop a programme of Council actions that will support the aforementioned declaration and that this be included in the Council Annual Plan Deliberations report, including the impacts on Council’s work programme.

The amendment was put and a division was called:

For

Cr Barker

Cr Dahlberg

Cr Noonan

Cr Rutledge

Cr Walker

Against

Her Worship the Mayor Reese (Chairperson)

Cr Acland

Cr Courtney

Cr Fulton

Cr Lawrey

Cr Matheson

Cr McGurk

Cr Skinner

The amendment was lost 5 - 8.

The original motion became the substantive motion.

Resolved CL/2019/074

That the Council

1. Receives the report Declaration of Climate Emergency (R10219) and its attachment (A2191324); and

2. Declares a climate emergency (A2191324); and

3. Requests the Chief Executive to develop a programme of Council actions that will support the aforementioned declaration and that this be included the Council Annual Plan Deliberations report.

The motion was put and a division was called:

For