From optimism to self-implosion, what happened at Wellington City Council?

Sunday, 28 February 2021

Andy Foster, left, was handed Wellington’s mayoral chains after a surprise election victory over incumbent Justin Lester in October 2019.

Andy Foster was all smiles when he usurped Justin Lester as Wellington's mayor 16 months ago.

Now, the trust between him and some of his councillors is so low, he hastily called for a review into the council’s governance before one of them beat him to it.

Foster called for the review following a sustained period of 'rancour and partisanship' among some councillors.

Foster’s announcement of a review on Wednesday was the culmination of a tumultuous year for the council, dogged by internal conflicts, legal challenges, testy public meetings, and questions over Foster’s leadership.

There appeared to be two final straws that led to Foster's decision that enough was enough.

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta said on Tuesday she was not “as yet” considering appointing commissioners to take over at Wellington City Council. (File photo)

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Wellington City councillor Sean Rush turned his back on a waiata during a council meeting in August.

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First, Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta's comments that she was not “as yet” considering bringing in commissioners, and second, the nasty fallout from Foster's myriad of late changes to his draft 10-year plan.

Wellington Mayor Andy Foster and councillor Fleur Fitzsimons exchanged blows over legal advice relating to the city's central library in July.

Foster wanted to front-foot the problems, to be in charge of his own fate and not let other councillors get in first.

But that decision has in itself created ripples, with Foster appointing the reviewer himself and setting his own terms of reference.

Some councillors say the decision should have gone through a council committee, and that the council’s own “professional entity”, namely Local Government New Zealand, should have taken the lead on the review, as Mahuta suggested on Tuesday.

In any case, the problems have now come to a head, with a review costing up to $75,000 approved by chief executive Barbara McKerrow and the council’s legal team on Friday.

Peter Winder will head up the review, and will begin his job immediately.

So, how did we get here? The first signs of trouble emerged during the coronavirus lockdown in April, when councillor Tamatha Paul accused colleague Diane Calvert of bullying her during an online council meeting.

Calvert responded by laying a formal code of conduct complaint with Foster, but the two ended up resolving the dispute themselves.

A few days later, The Dominion Post exposed a series of leaked internal emails that included a call for councillors to stop “bitching and moaning”, questions over Foster’s leadership, and a claim councillors had failed to act responsibly in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.

Foster came in for heavy criticism after helping out a group of protesters at Shelly Bay in November. The protesters set up camp on the site shortly after the council agreed to sell and lease land for a $500 million development.

It also emerged that Foster had recruited facilitator Sue Wells to help iron out the problems.

Further controversy ensued a few months later, when councillor Jill Day claimed she had been subjected to insensitive comments from some of her colleagues over her proposal to introduce iwi voting rights on council committees.

But Foster himself has also been at the centre of many of the disputes.

In July, he attempted to stop councillors from talking publicly about their preferred option for the closed central library building, and later blocked councillor Fleur Fitzsimons from tabling a legal opinion that stated councillors had a right to make comments.

His role in the Shelly Bay saga has also caused controversy.

The mayor is still under investigation for allegedly trying to share confidential information with councillor Jenny Condie before a crucial vote on selling and leasing council land for the $500 million development.

He then incensed some of his colleagues after turning up at a protest on Shelly Bay land after councillors voted in favour of the sale.

But the events of the past week have brought matters to breaking point.

Although they all passed, Foster’s late amendments to his draft 10-year plan have resulted in four separate complaints to the Auditor-General.

Three of them relate to his proposal to pull funding for a proposed Frank Kitts Park redevelopment, while the fourth relates to his recommendation to privatise parts of the central library rebuild.

Foster is not commenting on the review, and repeatedly offered cryptic answers when asked by journalists at a media conference on Wednesday to outline the problems that had led to his decision.

The irony of the matter is the ongoing disputes have not actually prevented the council from doing its core job.

It has signed off on many major decisions, none of which have been deferred or delayed.

But Foster’s inability to get on top of the ongoing squabbles, combined with the numerous attacks on his leadership abilities, has stolen almost all of the limelight.