Cr Doug Hall said something at a meeting.
Cr Carmen Houlahan appeared to be considered.
Cr Lee Vandervis produced an audacious display of ignorance.
Mayor Aaron Hawkins seemed to demonstrate real hunger to be re-elected.
They may well object to the flippancy of the above, because some particularly serious subjects were discussed and grave themes emerged.
It began cordially enough.
Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon outlined to Dunedin councillors why they should join a local government rebellion against the Government’s vision for how Three Waters reform should proceed.
An attempt by Communities 4 Local Democracy to embrace Maori input as part of its agenda was effortlessly exposed as feeble.
What followed was arguably a bizarre reinforcement of the movement’s achilles heel.
Cr Vandervis launched into arguments so off target that colleagues more or less committed to signing up must have contemplated bailing out.
Confronting Ngai Tahu representative Gabrielle Huria over her having the temerity to use the word "equity" in a way he alleged did not make sense, the councillor became stroppy.
The financial meaning of equity he insisted on was clever, in a way, because it was an allusion to asset ownership, which is legitimate territory to explore.
However, as any high school debater knows, the way to counter a definition seemingly chosen to suit one’s argument is to promote an alternative definition.
If Cr Vandervis has never heard of equity in the context of its well-known meaning of fairness, this is, at best, a remarkable blind spot for an experienced councillor.
Nobody needed to say out loud what an alternative interpretation of the councillor’s conduct might be — that he was striving to get someone to pin a certain label on him.
Mr Hawkins produced an early contender for understatement of the year.
"Councillor, you’re embarrassing yourself," he told Cr Vandervis.
Of course, it was not lost on Mr Hawkins what an uncomfortable position some councillors found themselves in by association.
Leading Three Waters agitator in Dunedin Cr Jim O’Malley recognised it immediately and apologised for the conduct of Cr Vandervis.
Mr Hawkins said afterwards debate at the meeting was toxic and he was disappointed the council decided to "turn its back on our relationship with mana whenua".
The vote to join the Three Waters rebellion passed 8-7 — a loss for Mr Hawkins that followed an impressive morning’s work.
He alone showed convincing evidence he had grasped an investigator’s report into how the council handled last year’s lead contamination scare — and all of the implications.
Some elected representatives offered little more than cliches.
Cr Vandervis did secure a debating win.
During discussion about a coastal plan, Cr Jules Radich had asked council staff how many signatures his own petition about groynes had received and then helpfully provided the answer.
Mr Hawkins asked Cr Radich if he had a question to which he did not know the answer, prompting Cr Vandervis to observe quite rightly that councillors often did this and he explained why such a tactic was demonstrably necessary sometimes.
On the coastal plan itself, Cr Vandervis lamented the cost of producing such reports, but there is a faint possibility he acknowledges the mayor’s arguments were superior.
He even voted for the plan’s adoption.
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Comments
Voter turnout in Dunedin is so low that the DCC does not represent true democracy. Given yesterday’s meeting it is hardly surprising because there is no one worth a vote?
Words do not always mean what they used to mean. To me, equity now seems to mean equity of outcome. If it meant a fair, plain playing field so that everyone was able to be on it to strive for the best; that would be fair. But now, equity means for some that the outcome must be favourable to some groups over others, in order to recoup some perceived losses through past injustices. This interpretation of equity is the opposite of the dictionary one which is: "the quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality: or: an equitable or legally valid right or claim: or the monetary value of a property or business beyond any amounts owed on it in mortgages, claims, liens, etc." No such fairness emits from local government today. What we get are false claims for equality of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity. If people in groups want to pursue recompense for ages past wrongs, I as a ratepayer do not want my Council to pay it to them from my rates. Recompense can be had through the legal courts. Equity is just being highjacked for political and monetary gain.