Nelson City Council
Te Kaunihera o Whakatū
Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson on Tuesday 19 October 2021, commencing at 2.05p.m.
Present: Her Worship the Mayor R Reese (Chairperson), Councillors Y Bowater, T Brand, M Courtney, J Edgar (Deputy Mayor), K Fulton, M Lawrey, R O'Neill-Stevens, B McGurk, G Noonan, P Rainey, R Sanson and T Skinner
In Attendance: Chief Executive (P Dougherty), Group Manager Strategy and Communications (N McDonald), Kaihautū (P Lee), Team Leader Governance (R Byrne) and Governance Adviser (J Brandt)
Apologies : Nil
Karakia and Mihi Timatanga
Attendance: Councillor Skinner joined the meeting at 2.06p.m.
1. Apologies
There were no apologies.
2. Confirmation of Order of Business
There was no change to the order of business.
There were no updates to the Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.
There was no public forum.
Document number R26329, agenda pages 7 - 12 refer.
Corrections to the minutes were tabled (A2773385).
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1. Confirms the amended minutes of the meeting of the Council, held on 5 October 2021, as a true and correct record. |
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1 A2773385 - Amended Minutes 5Oct2021 |
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Document number R26326, agenda pages 13 - 14 refer.
Her Worship the Mayor spoke about the Government’s new housing policy, the Housing Supply Bill, and that there would be an opportunity for Nelson City Council to make a submission.
The Mayor noted that four out of five of Council’s applications to the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF) were accepted to proceed to the Request for Proposal stage. The Chief Executive, Pat Dougherty, noted that work was under way to put together an IAF project team.
Attendance: Councillor Fulton joined the meeting at 2.17p.m.
The Mayor answered questions about the Science and Technology Precinct Advisory Group’s Terms of Reference and about the International Urban and Regional Cooperation Programme.
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1. Receives the report Mayor's Report (R26326). |
7. Representation Review - Final Proposal
Document number R26244, agenda pages 15 - 118 refer.
Manager Governance and Support Services, Devorah Nīcuarta-Smith, presented the report. She answered questions about the appeals and objection process following public notification of the final proposal.
Her Worship the Mayor noted that she preferred a four-ward model without an ‘at large’ ward.
Her Worship the Mayor, seconded by the Deputy Mayor, moved the following motion:
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Recommendation |
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That the Council 1. Receives the report Representation Review - Final Proposal (R26244) and its attachments (A2751168, A2755743 and A2747943); and 2. Amends the initial proposal so as to provide that the Council’s final proposal is as follows: a. That the Nelson City Council consists of a Mayor and 13 councillors; and b. That four General Wards be established as follows:
i. Noting that the Whakatū Māori ward was established for the 2022 and 2025 local government elections on 13 May 2021, a decision which cannot be appealed to the Local Government Commission; and c. That a ward-only system of voting be established, as follows, noting Ward names will be confirmed:
and d. That no community boards be established; and
3. Agrees that key reasons for its adoption of the final proposal, and for refusing submissions that advocated for a different approach, include: a. A single general ward with ward-only voting would only allow those on the Māori roll to vote for the Mayor and the Māori ward councillor, while those on the general roll would be able to vote for the Mayor and 11 general ward councillors, creating a perceived imbalance in participation opportunities between those registered for each roll. b. It is anticipated that a single general ward with mixed system voting would create a high level of confusion; as the general ward would encompass the full Nelson electoral boundary, ward councillors and at-large councillors would be campaigning for exactly the same area; c. There was greater community support for four or more general wards than for a three ward model; d. A four ward model provides increased balance in the ‘population per councillor’ metric across all wards to that of a two ward model, noting that this metric is an important contributor towards assessing fair representation.
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Ms Nīcuarta-Smith answered questions about the naming of wards, reasons for officers recommending a two-ward mixed model, how it compared to a four-ward model, geographical boundaries for wards, the impact of Single Transferable Vote, and the number of councillors in the Māori Ward.
The meeting was adjourned from 3.15p.m. to 3.21p.m.
Elected Members debated the motion.
During debate, Councillor Fulton raised a Point of Order against Councillor Lawrey that under Standing Order 24.2 (d) a potentially misleading statement had been made in the description of the voting system as it did not take into account that Nelson was moving to a Single Transferable Vote. The Mayor upheld the Point of Order.
Councillor Rainey raised a Point of Order against Councillor Skinner that under Standing Order 24.2 (c) his opinion on the motion was irrelevant as it was clear the motion would be lost. The Mayor did not uphold the Point of Order.
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The motion was put and a division was called: |
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For Cr Bowater Deputy Mayor Edgar Cr Fulton Cr Noonan Cr Skinner Mayor Reese (Chairperson) |
Against Cr Brand Cr Courtney Cr Lawrey Cr O'Neill-Stevens Cr McGurk Cr Rainey Cr Sanson |
Abstained/Interest
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The motion was lost 6 - 7. |
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Councillor Sanson, seconded by Councillor Brand, moved an alternative motion, with the spelling of ‘Tahuna’ amended to ‘Tāhunanui’ in ward names:
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1. Receives the report Representation Review - Final Proposal (R26244) and its attachments (A2751168, A2755743 and A2747943); and 2. Adopts the initial proposal as the Council’s final proposal, noting therefore that the final proposal is as follows: a. That the Nelson City Council consists of a Mayor and 12 councillors; and b. That two General Wards be established as follows:
i. Noting that the Whakatū Māori ward was established for the 2022 and 2025 local government elections on 13 May 2021, a decision which cannot be appealed to the Local Government Commission; and c. That a mixed system of voting be established, as follows:
and d. That no community boards be established; and 3. Agrees that key reasons for its adoption of the final proposal, and for refusing submissions that advocated for a different approach, include: a. A single general ward with ward-only voting would only allow those on the Māori roll to vote for the Mayor and the Māori ward councillor, while those on the general roll would be able to vote for the Mayor and 11 general ward councillors, creating a perceived imbalance in participation opportunities between those registered for each roll. b. It is anticipated that a single general ward with mixed system voting would create a high level of confusion; as the general ward would encompass the full Nelson electoral boundary, ward councillors and at-large councillors would be campaigning for exactly the same area; c. A three ward model can only achieve compliance if all councillors are elected by ward and also requires an increase in the total number of councillors which has not been supported by the community; d. Models with larger numbers of wards also typically require a larger total number of councillors which has not been supported by the community; and e. A four ward model and six ward model are not supported by information held on communities of interest in Nelson. |
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Karakia Whakamutunga
There being no further business the meeting ended at 4.36p.m.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings by resolution on 8 December 2021
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Resolved CL/2021/255 |
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That the Council 1. Confirms the minutes of the meeting of the Council, held on 19 October 2021, as a true and correct record. |