At a pivotal moment in the development of Otago’s land and water plan, public debate was stymied at this week’s strategy and planning meeting, the committee’s co-chairwoman says.
At the meeting, councillors noted two staff reports: one was an update from the land and water plan governance group and the other was an overview of future consultation for the development of the plan.
Public discussion was limited at the meeting, but councillors and staff had already discussed the issues in front of them in a closed-door workshop setting.
The meeting came only days after the council’s work on the plan’s foundation document, the proposed regional policy statement, was struck a blow at the High Court.
The council learned last week the fast-track process it was taking with its regional statement was wrong.
However, at the meeting council staff said they were still working through the implications of that decision.
Council chairman Cr Andrew Noone said the pressure on the council to get the plan finished in time to satisfy a deadline for Environment Minister David Parker was building.
But that was about the extent of the discussion.
The committee’s other co-chairwoman, Cr Kate Wilson, who chaired Wednesday’s meeting, said she gave ample opportunity for councillors to ask questions during the meeting and no-one took up the opportunity.
Cr Wilson said she offered councillors an opportunity to address the issues around consultation raised in the reports, but presently expected staff to introduce a new report to councillors on "where to next" on both related planning documents at an August meeting instead.
"I appreciate that was the first meeting after a High Court case," Cr Wilson said.
"I had tried to lead a discussion on that, and staff didn’t seem to want to go there and no-one asked staff questions, so that’s how I left it."
The meeting ended abruptly as Cr Wilson tried to clarify who was voting in favour of noting the report.
Cr Alexa Forbes asked, "What are we voting on please?"
It was then made clear that councillors would not discuss any of a further seven staff recommendations at the meeting.
After some discussion the vote went ahead.
Cr Hilary Calvert, who pushed for the vote, said councillors had earlier in the day participated in a workshop when "a variety of thoughts" related to the other matters were presented to staff by councillors.
"It seems to me appropriate that those are all collated and thought about ... and those will come back to us at the next meeting."
Cr Calvert said she was "particularly mindful" of councillors not making a hurried decision after the workshop.
The vote to note the report and end the discussion was won 9-3.
Committee iwi liaison Otakou runaka upoko Edward Ellison and Crs Forbes and Robertson voted against.
Cr Robertson said it would be important to report publicly what went on in the workshop in a timely manner.
After the meeting she said the discussion from the day’s workshop should have fed into the committee meeting.
"That’s the whole reason for holding a strategy and planning meeting today following the workshop," she said.
"With diverse backgrounds and ears open, we swapped recipes for what good consultation looks like.
"I can’t understand why reporting on and debating constructive work like this would be deliberately stymied.
"The undoctored, raw findings from this workshop could have been reported."
Cr Noone said the new report would come to the strategy and planning committee meeting on August 10.
