The first Invercargill City Council meeting of the triennium kicked off with Mayor Tom Campbell reflecting on last week’s devastating storm.
Mayor Campbell said every council meeting would have a reflection, either from a councillor, himself, or in some cases a member of the public.
He said they owed a debt of gratitude towards those who have spent the past 12 days helping to restore the city and the region, in what he described as “extraordinary work by many many people.”
Inviting the Student Volunteer Army to speak about their role, ambassador for Southland Jacob Wilkinson-Hall said they had 40 helpers across the city helping mostly elderly people, after setting up a crisis response.
“People worked in unbelievably difficult circumstances,” he said.
The new and returning elected members also resolved to offer the opportunity for two mana whenua representatives to be appointed to council, as had been the case in the previous term.
Waihōpai Rūnaka and Te Rūnaka o Awarua have been invited to provide their nominations to council, for representatives to be formally appointed.
Mana whenua representatives have voting rights at committee-level, and speaking rights at full council meetings.
A question was asked from new councillor Andrea de Vries about how they would determine which runaka sat on which committees?
Mayor Campbell said the representatives agreed among themselves last term, with two iwi representatives (Pania Coote and Evelyn Cook), sitting on both the community and infrastructure committees - and then also the finance and policy committee when it split off.
But it was decided that iwi representatives will be able to choose three committees to sit on this term “so they will have to divide themselves,” he said.
Cr Barry Stewart voted against the last three recommendations regarding iwi on committees, but Mayor Campbell decided the matter wasn’t up for further discussion.
The 2025-2028 council consists of re-elected councillors Steve Broad, Alex Crackett, Grant Dermody, Trish Boyle, Ria Bond, Darren Ludlow, Ian Pottinger, Allan Arnold, Barry Stewart, joined by new councillors Andrea de Vries and Lisa Tou McNaughton, as well as Marcus Lush, who served as an Invercargill City Councillor between 2021 and 2022.