At an Invercargill City Council extraordinary meeting yesterday, councillors met to make progress on the plan requested by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to ensure the council resolved its differences.
A letter was sent to the council by the DIA on August 18 which detailed "significant conflict" among elected representatives and the chief executive.
Yesterday, councillors agreed on the unbudgeted first estimate cost, which will need updating once the evaluation of current performance is received and ways to address it are determined.
After about 15 minutes, the public and media were asked to leave as the meeting turned to public excluded; in this time, James Crichton was appointed independent evaluator and the independent adviser — Bruce Robertson — had his summary of key issues considered.
During the public session, councillors voted to adopt the terms of reference for the independent evaluation, confirmed key decisions required and adopted a draft plan for progress.
Chief executive Clare Hadley said councillors earlier voted for the discussion about the report be held publicly to provide transparency.
Last Tuesday, the council, "in the interest of openness and transparency", also released reports which were considered in public-excluded sessions last week.
Deputy mayor Toni Biddle yesterday questioned whether the report covered all aspects the DIA had asked for, in particular the relationship issues and conflict.
"I’m wanting to clarify if anywhere in this report it actually gives any progress guidance or plan as to how that will be resolved."
Mrs Hadley replied that the report identified Mr Robertson would give feedback on key issues during the public excluded session.
"It is difficult to make plans for that journey to a better place without the independent evaluation."
When Cr Biddle asked why it would be public-excluded, Mr Robertson explained, given the honest feedback from councillors, he wanted to respect that.
"That is clearly a decision that can be revisited, I would suggest, after the independent evaluation has been carried out."
Cr Nobby Clark agreed it should be held in a public excluded session, and said it was the same as any employment process in that mediation was private.
The feedback compiled from councillors would be given to the independent evaluator who would look at the current standard of governance of councillors.
In a statement after the meeting, Mrs Hadley said Mr Crichton would provide an interim briefing before a final report to the council in late October.
"Mr Crichton’s role is not just to consider council’s past performance, or any issues which may have led to the DIA’s letter, but also to provide recommendations to both elected members and senior staff on what can be done to improve leadership in future," Mrs Hadley said.
