Gore mayoral candidates clash over Memorial Day meeting

Thursday, 22 September 2022

Gore mayoral candidates Ben Bell, of Team Hokonui, left, and incumbent Tracy Hicks.

A stoush has erupted between the Gore district’s two mayoral candidates over a planned panel discussion on flooding issues in the area.

Team Hokonui, headed by mayoral candidate Ben Bell, plans to hold a meeting on Monday night at Mataura, and has invited all electoral candidates to a panel discussion.

Environment Southland last month warned residents that stop banks on the Mataura River could fail.

But current mayor Tracy Hicks has issued an open letter on his social media page, saying the meeting is ‘’disrespectful and dangerous.’’

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Gore mayoral candidate Ben Bell responds to Stuff questions during the local body election campaign.

“I won't be attending for two reasons. First, out of respect for the late and universally revered, Queen. I believe the day set aside for her memorial across the nation should be free of all political debate and it behooves us all to respect the day set aside for solemn reflection,’’ he said.

He was also critical of the fact that no catchment staff from Environment Southland had been invited to the meeting.

Gore mayoral candidate Tracy Hicks responds to Stuff questions during the local body election campaign.

”The absence of skilled professional catchment expertise at your proposed meeting is instructive in regard to your intention…dangerous in so far as uninformed discussion by individual’s seeking votes opens the door to a community who are already anxious becoming even more fearful.

“Quite frankly I believe calling a meeting on the day you have and topping it off by not including catchment management experts is both disrespectful and dangerous.’’

Hicks would be representing the Gore district at the National Memorial Service in Wellington but asked for his statement to be read to people attending the meeting.

Bell said despite the fact that Team Hokonui was deeply saddened by the Queens passing, it had always intended to hold the meeting on Monday.

In an email to Hicks, which he supplied to Stuff, he said ‘’as we had already set the wheels in motion regarding advertising and contacting the Environment Southland candidates for availability and willingness to attend this chat, before the Governments' announcement about the public holiday, it is incredibly unfortunate that these dates overlap,’’ he said.

With regard to not having catchment specialists at the meeting, he says in the email that the regional council had held numerous information evenings very recently regarding the current condition of the Mataura and surrounding catchments, so to insinuate that public were uneducated on the matter was unfair to those catchment experts who have put in the time to inform the public.

“Furthermore, we have three individuals who are standing to be elected as representatives for this area, so I would be shocked if they had no skilled expertise on the problems and more importantly, the solutions for this catchment. The goal with these types of discussions is to come up with ideas as a community so that our elected members can take them to the experts if they are to get in.’’

Bell said he would ‘’respectfully decline’’ to read out Hicks’ statement at the meeting.

“I am more than happy to record your absence and read aloud the statement regarding your reasoning for the absence, however, I don’t think it is fair to you to read the part about having experts present when we will be explaining in the room the nature of the discussion, as it might come across that you misunderstood.

“As a form of compromise and sign of good faith I am more than happy to recuse myself from the discussion as you are absent due to Mayoral duties and to show that it is a discussion about the problems and solutions at hand and not about fear driven voting,’’ he says in the email.

Environment Southland chief executive Wilma Falconer confirmed no catchment staff had been invited to attend the meeting, and staff would be observing the Queen’s Memorial Day on Monday.

“We understand this is a candidate information evening and the three Eastern Dome constituency candidates have been invited,’’ she said.

The regional council had held several drop-in sessions about the Mataura stop banks in Gore, Mataura and Wyndham, with staff available at those to speak to the issues. Further sessions were being planned for Edendale, she said.