An attempt to "hijack" yesterday’s extraordinary Otago Regional Council meeting failed.
A vote to pause work on the council’s land and water plan lost 7-5, but the rhetoric during the debate appeared to ratchet up.
During yesterday’s meeting, chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson called for quiet from the public gallery, for councillors to stick to the topic of the debate and for Cr Elliot Weir to withdraw their comment that the pretense for the meeting had been "disingenuous".
Councillors gathered at short notice after five councillors wrote to chief executive Richard Saunders asking for two reports.
One was a briefing on a 40-minute September 12 meeting between council leadership and Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay in Wellington.
The other was a report on steps the government could take to deal with issues arising if the council abandoned its October 31 target date for notifying the plan.
At the meeting, Cr Kevin Malcolm called for a vote on pausing work on the plan.
Cr Weir said pausing the work was "a terrible idea".
"I think it would spit in the face of everyone who’s gone out of their way to be involved in this plan so far.
"And I think it’s disingenuous to call an extraordinary meeting ... and then to spring a surprise motion to halt everything without so much as a heads up to other councillors.
"I think the way this has been gone about is really disingenuous and disrespectful."
Cr Malcolm interjected and said labelling the meeting disingenuous was incorrect and "a slur", a comment that caused both Crs Alexa Forbes and Weir to laugh.
Nevertheless, Cr Robertson ordered Cr Weir to withdraw the remark. They did, and the meeting resumed.
Cr Alan Somerville said he was not prepared to support a pause in the work.
"In fact it’s time to call out this nonsense from government.
"Our government leaders have signalled on many occasions they believe in local decision making.
"Well, here’s local decision making after years of work by the ORC.
"Let’s get on with doing our job for the environment and communities of Otago."
Cr Tim Mepham said the environment minister was acting like "a bully".
"I think the government is giving us the ‘one finger salute’ — it’s not respecting local government, it’s not respecting the democratic process."
Deputy chairman Cr Lloyd McCall said he did not come to the meeting to discuss "whether we pause or don’t pause the plan".
"I think it’s unfortunate that the meeting has been hijacked with an out-of-the-blue motion."
It seemed there was a group of councillors determined to make a decision before all the information relating to the plan was on the table, he said.
"I would suggest to some of the councillors that their tactics are not working, and their tactics will not work."
Cr Andrew Noone said everyone wanted clean water and swimmable bodies of water.
"The biggest risk we’ve got going forward at the moment ... is uncertainty — uncertainty for the environment, uncertainty for this organisation and uncertainty for our community.
"And one of the ways we can reduce that uncertainty going forward is taking a pause."
Cr Michael Laws said the government had repeatedly sent a clear message: the council should pause its work on a plan "infused" with policies that were due to change.
The council was "following the wrong map".
Cr Malcolm said the ministers expected a response from the council after the meeting in Wellington to understand "where we’re heading".
"Working together with the government is absolutely critical."
Yesterday’s vote involved the same 7-5 split among councillors as have a series of votes related to the plan since ministers called for work on it to be paused late last year.
A vote on notifying the plan is due on October 23.
