Former WDC councillor Frank Newman (highlighted in green) addresses Friday's Local Government Commission hearing, held by Zoom as a result of Covid restrictions. Photo / Susan Botting
Former WDC councillor Frank Newman (highlighted in green) addresses Friday's Local Government Commission hearing, held by Zoom as a result of Covid restrictions. Photo / Susan Botting
The flavour of Whangārei District Council's proposed political structure for next year's elections has been challenged by three of its councillors - part of the council's first Local Government Commission representation review hearing.
The councillors were among a dozen people who appealed against Whangārei District Council (WDC)'s September final proposal to wipe wards and go to district-wide elections in the wake of introducing a Māori ward for 2022.
Councillors Vince Cocurullo, Phil Halse and Greg Martin were among the appellants speaking in a formal six-hour Local Government Commission (LGC) appeals and objections hearing on Friday. Cocurullo said his LGC appeal was made in his capacity as a private individual.
Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai and Deputy Mayor Greg Innes were grilled by the commission on why the council had suddenly in September changed tack to bring in district-wide voting for the next year's local government elections – in spite of consultation which indicated to the community that it was going for the wards-based status quo voting system and few of those who submitted being in favour of district-wide voting.
Mai said councillors had taken into account a lot of accompanying informal feedback alongside the formal process.
LGC chair Brendan Duffy described the hearing as a torturous process that commissioners and the council had to go through, in order to make its final decision on WDC's September final representation review proposal.
Duffy said the commission would announce its decision "in the New Year" - by law, it must make this announcement no later than April.
Appellants speaking at Friday's hearing almost without exception wanted WDC to have a wards-based political system - Cocurullo, Halse and Martin included.
Former WDC councillor Frank Newman said the Whangārei community had not expressed a desire to change from the ward system during council consultation leading up to its September final proposal.
He said WDC wards currently had between 4,600 and 19,000 electors, voting at large would see a ward of 60,000 people.
WDC processes the council used to reach its September final proposal were closely drilled by the commission.
Duffy asked Mai how confident she was that a fair democratic process had been followed in making the September final decision.
Mai said WDC had followed processes outlined in the Local Electoral Act and that the outcome had been democratic.
Intense, polarised and sometimes heated debate marked key milestones in WDC reaching its decision.
WDC CR Greg Martin speaks to today's Local Government Commission hearing from WDC's council chamber at Forum North. Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai and Deputy Mayor Greg Innes are at left of the screen
All council voting en route was extremely close with split voting or very slim majorities, sometimes only arrived at through elected representatives including the Mayor and or Deputy Mayor abstaining from voting.
Mai said the situation clearly indicated the benefits of the council having an odd rather than even number of councillors.
The commissioners asked WDC how it would adequately represent communities of interest across in the district-wide voting system proposed to replace the ward voting system that had been in place since 1984.
Another former WDC councillor, Jeroen Jongejans, was an almost lone voice in Friday's hearing speaking in support of district-wide voting.
Newman spoke on behalf of himself and three groups including Democracy Northland, which began life when NRC councillor John Bain walked out of a Northland Regional Council meeting last year over its vote in favour of a Māori constituency.
WDC's final proposal was for 13 politicians - the Mayor and 12 councillors; 10 from one general ward and two from the one Māori ward. There would be no community boards. This compares with its current 14 politicians – the Mayor and 13 councillors.
Cocurullo, Halse and Martin in March this year unsuccessfully tried to overturn their council's decision in favour of a Māori ward.
