Mayor Issues Warning Over Cellphone Use In Council Meetings

As the world of online communication continues to dominate people’s lives, the new Mayor delivered a strong message at the inaugural Invercargill City Council meeting today.

Mayor Nobby Clark said in the past, he was aware that people had contacted council members at meetings to influence the democratic process.

“It doesn’t look good if people are prompting others around the table.”

But he was also aware that cellphones were necessary for those members who needed to be in contact with children, or to communicate with relatives who were unwell.

Councillor Darren Ludlow also agreed it also wasn’t a good look for councillors to be using their cellphones in meetings, except where it could help or advance council business.

It was agreed that cellphone use could continue, “but if it gets beyond that, it will be something that we will monitor,” Mayor Clark said.

A new code of conduct was also adopted, which now extended to members of the public who could go through Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) to make a complaint about a councillor or staff member.

Mayor Clark spoke against this and used recent examples such as Three Waters and the vaccine mandates, “where we could open ourselves up to literally hundreds of different things.”

It was agreed around the table that the more serious code of conduct complaints would involve using an external investigator outside of council.

The debate on whether to continue allowing mana whenua to have a voice around the council table gained support by the majority of councillors, except Ian Pottinger and Mayor Clark.

After much discussion, councillor Nigel Skelt said, “we either respect their voice or we don’t.”

Many decided it was still important and valuable to hear iwi representatives’ opinion on many topics, despite not being able to vote.