Minutes of an extraordinary meeting of the Nelson City Council
Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson
On Tuesday 24 March 2020, commencing at 1.00pm
Present: Her Worship the Mayor R Reese (Chairperson), Councillors T Brand, J Edgar, M Lawrey, R O'Neill-Stevens, G Noonan, P Rainey and T Skinner. Via audio-visual link: Councillors Y Bowater, M Courtney, K Fulton, B McGurk and R Sanson
In Attendance: Chief Executive (P Dougherty), Group Manager Infrastructure (A Louverdis), Group Manager Corporate Services (N Harrison), and Team Leader Governance (R Byrne), via audio-visual link: Group Manager Strategy and Communications (N McDonald)
Apologies : Nil
Opening Prayer
Her Worship the Mayor Reese gave the opening prayer, and councillors sang a waiata.
1. Apologies
Apologies were not taken at this time, to allow councillors joining the meeting via audio-visual link and opportunity to connect to the meeting.
2. Confirmation of Order of Business
There was no change to the order of business.
Councillor McGurk declared an interest in Item 1 on the Confidential Agenda, Community Housing: Revised Negotiating Brief, and left the meeting when the item was discussed.
There was no public forum.
5. Mayor's Report
Her Worship the Mayor spoke on the Prime-Minister’s announcement of a COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown in operation from midnight on Wednesday 25 March 2020. She noted that while the community had experience in dealing with emergencies the current situation was very different and would require everyone to stay at home and look out for their neighbours. She encouraged employers to make contact with support services the Government was providing.
Her Worship the Mayor noted that while the Draft Annual Plan was currently open for consultation, and when Council came to adopt this it would need to look at different tools to ensure Council operations continue to operate.
Attendance: The meeting adjourned from 1.18p.m. until 1.38p.m.
6. Emergency Provisions for COVID-19
Document number R15935
Manager Governance and Support Services, Mary Birch, presented the report and answered questions on the Chief Executive’s decision on urgency, appointments to the Emergency Committee and the duration of the appointment.
Ms Birch provided an amendment to the recommendation to allow for the resolution to be revoked at any time, noting it was expected to remain in place for the duration of Alert Level 3 and 4.
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1. Receives the report Emergency Provisions for COVID-19 (R15935) and its attachments Emergency Committee Terms of Reference (A2363612) and Proposed Amendments to Standing Orders (A2335387); and 2. Establishes an Emergency Committee, with a membership of three being, in the first instance, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the relevant Committee Chair whose area of responsibility the matter of urgency falls under; and 3. Provides that where a member of the Emergency Committee is unable to fulfil their duties for whatever reason, another Standing Committee Chair will be appointed by the Chief Executive to undertake the role of Emergency Committee member; and 4. Adopts the Emergency Committee’s Terms of Reference (A2363612) and 5. Delegates to the Emergency Committee all Council’s powers, duties, and responsibilities, except for those that cannot legally be delegated; and 6. Agrees that such delegation shall take effect if the Chief Executive determines that: a. An urgent decision to enable the proper performance of Council functions is required by Council or a Committee or a Subcommittee; and b. In the circumstances it is not possible or it is impracticable to convene a meeting or obtain a quorum for the Council, Committee or Subcommittee due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 7. Agrees that any decision made pursuant to this delegation will be binding on Council; 8. Agrees that decisions made pursuant to this delegation will be circulated to all Councillors and the public as soon as possible and be reported at the earliest possible Council meeting; and 9. Notes that the Council may revoke this delegation at any time but it is anticipated that it will remain in force while Alert Level 3 or 4 applies; and 10. Approves the proposed amendments to Standing Orders as set out in Attachment 2 (A2335387). |
7. Exclusion of the Public
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1. Excludes the public from the following parts of the proceedings of this meeting. 2. The general subject of each matter to be considered while the public is excluded, the reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter and the specific grounds under section 48(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 for the passing of this resolution are as follows: |
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Item |
General subject of each matter to be considered |
Reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter |
Particular interests protected (where applicable) |
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1 |
Community Housing: Revised Negotiating Brief
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Section 48(1)(a) The public conduct of this matter would be likely to result in disclosure of information for which good reason exists under section 7 |
The withholding of the information is necessary: · Section 7(2)(c)(i) To protect information which is subject to an obligation of confidence or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment, where the making available of the information would be likely to prejudice the supply of similar information or information from the same source and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied · Section 7(2)(g) To maintain legal professional privilege · Section 7(2)(i) To enable the local authority to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations (including commercial and industrial negotiations) |
The meeting went into public excluded session at 2.04p.m. during which time Councillor Courtney joined the meeting at 2.12pm. The meeting resumed in public session at 3.44p.m.
There being no further business the meeting ended at 3.44p.m.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings:
Chairperson
Date