A new separate submission on Three Waters being prepared by staff at the Invercargill City Council had the Mayor and councillors blindsided on Tuesday 14 February..
At an extra Infrastructure Committee meeting to consider the council’s main submission, it was revealed by Erin Moogan, Group Manager – Infrastructure that the ICC was also preparing another one internally, as part of a joint initiative with other Otago Southland councils.
The Executive Director of Three Waters for Otago Southland, Julie Muir, from the Central Otago District Council was currently working on the submission.
But councillors voted against the motion, so Invercargill won’t be joining other councils, as some councillors believe it will do the ICC a disservice.
The Executive Director was also nominated to speak with the Three Waters Select Committee on behalf of council staff across the regions.
Mayor Nobby Clark took exception to the joint staff submission, saying that Invercargill needed to stand alone, as it had its own separate Three Waters issues, but also implied he didn’t trust some of his other colleagues in other centres.
“Some of my Otago area colleagues were adamant that they were in favour of this reform all the way through and we got quite a flogging for being outside their support area. And I received some too personally.
“But as soon as we got to the select committee they were all opposed to it because it was election year.”
Chief executive Clare Hadley jumped to her council’s defence saying the new legislation had significant impacts on staff, given that the Government was funding the work, and said the issue was not political.
Mayor Clark said if there were staffing issues that needed to be addressed, they should’ve been included in the main submission already, without the need for a separate one.
Clare said asking staff to do further work on Three Waters – particularly with the submission deadline this Friday, was “beyond unreasonableness.”
But Mayor Clark said he was not suggesting they change the submission at all, just pointing out that if the staffing issues hadn’t been added into the original submission, then they can’t have been that significant.
Erin said the second staff submission was an attempt to give a greater voice to those issues already raised in the main submission.
But Cr Ria Bond said having two submissions would look like they were not speaking with one voice, therefore it would do the council a disservice.
Cr Trish Boyle said it looked like the council was having a breakdown.
“I don’t see how we can control that Otago Southland voice,” Mayor Clark said.
“In the background we’ve had a CEO and staff prepare a submission we haven’t even seen?”
Committee chair Ian Pottinger said this was all new information he wasn’t aware of, “there was no indication that they was a second submission on another level.
“This is completely off agenda and off scope and I’m not happy with it,” he said before putting it to a motion.
It was lost with Clark, Pottinger, and councillors Nigel Skelt, Ria Bond, Trish Boyle, Grant Dermody and Allan Arnold voting voting against it.