The development of the land and water plan, required to be notified by the end of next year, has been a major focus for the council recently.
The plan will provide direction on how land and water can be used in Otago and its development proved contentious during the last term.
Cr Kevin Malcolm, who, at the council’s inaugural meeting last month, lost a bid to be council chairman and then to retain his previous position as the deputy chairman, this week said he was uneasy about now appointing two "unknown" co-chairs to the important committee role.
Nevertheless, the council voted 9-2 to appoint first-term regional councillor, the new deputy chairman, Cr Lloyd McCall, and an unnamed iwi representative to chair the committee.
"Trying something new at this critical stage of the ORC, to me, is fraught with possible problems," Cr Malcolm said.
"We’ve got a deadline to make by 2023 ...
"And we’re saying ‘Chair that committee to bring us home by 2023.’
"I have a real concern, not with the people, but the fact is we have to deliver.
"We need experience doing this role at this time."
The other objector at this week’s council meeting was Cr Michael Laws who did not question Cr McCall’s inclusion, but instead the iwi representation.
Cr Laws repeated what he called "a fundamental philosophical objection" to the appointment of non-elected representatives.
"And the concept that there will be representatives who sit around this table who do not have the best interests of Otago at heart, but who are here primarily and only because of their ethnic background is philosophically abhorrent to me.
"We have, I believe, made a fundamentally flawed decision to see Ngai Tahu or at least those Ngai Tahu representatives who live in the Otago region somehow as Treaty partners of the Otago Regional Council.
"That is to misunderstand both history and the law."
Among those who disagreed with Cr Laws at the meeting was former chairman Cr Andrew Noone.
He said the iwi representation approved again this term stemmed from the governance-level agreement between the council and Ngai Tahu papatipu runanga, based on a Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties first signed in 2003.
In June, as chairman Cr Noone signed an updated terms of reference to the agreement, known as Mana-to-Mana.
"It’s about progressing Mana-to-Mana to another level," Cr Noone said.
Councillors agreed to one iwi representative to chair the environmental policy and science committee and an iwi representative on the regional leadership committee.
While the co-chairmen of the council’s new committees were decided this week, the names of each and their terms of reference have yet to be confirmed.
Cr Gary Kelliher sent his apologies.
