Ex Invercargill city councillor calls for investigation into handling of deputy mayor changeover

Monday, 29 May 2017

A former Invercargill city councillor has called for an audit office investigation into the deputy mayor fiasco.

Thelma Buck has criticised the actions of Mayor Tim Shadbolt and councillors over the handling of the issue and she is fuming councillors reportedly drank alcohol when making the decision to oust Darren Ludlow from the deputy mayor's role.

Buck contacted Fairfax to express her dismay after councillor Allan Arnold said councillors 'had a couple of beers' when councillors met and signed a requisition order to oust Ludlow.

Arnold said he had understood the meeting of councillors to be a 'social gathering' and not a formal meeting, and he had not known what it was about until after he arrived.

Buck was unimpressed by the actions of the councillors, saying ratepayers relied on them to do the right thing..

She said the councillors should not have been drinking alcohol when making a decision of such importance.

'You need your wits about you, especially when it's a big decision like that, and you shouldn't be drinking.'

Ratepayers were finding the going tough and alcohol should be done away with at the council, she said.

She questioned what training the new councillors had received and what they had been told.

'They are in the deep end.'

The whole issue needed looking into, she said.

'I think the whole thing stinks. It's got a very strong smell.' 

She believed the audit department should investigate.

'It's just got out of hand.

'It must make Darren feel pretty sick, because what did he do?'

Ludlow declined to comment on the issue of the councillors reportedly drinking alcohol when making the decision to oust him.

Cr Lloyd Esler said he was not at the informal meeting and does not drink alcohol, Crs Toni Biddle and Graham Lewis said they did not drink at the meeting, Cr Ian Pottinger declined to comment and the remaining city councillors and Mayor Tim Shadbolt did not return calls on the issue.

Biddle said the informal meeting had been in Shadbolt's room at the council headquarters in Esk St.

The councillors and mayor have also refused to reveal in detail why they wanted Ludlow gone as deputy mayor, other than to say it was a performance issue.

Meanwhile, councillor Lindsay Abbott has taken to social media to express his frustrations at being blocked by Shadbolt from expressing his views on the Ludlow matter in a council meeting last week.

Abbott, who declined to attend the informal meeting of councillors in which they signed the requisition order to oust Ludlow, was unimpressed at how his fellow city councillors had treated Ludlow and said so publicly last month.

Now he is upset he was unable to have his say at the council meeting in which Shadbolt formally appointed Rebecca Amundsen to the deputy's role without opening the issue for debate among the councillors.

Abbott posted a message on Facebook this week saying he had tried to represent the  'many concerns' of the public at the meeting.

Those concerns were similar to his, he says.

'Put simply, that a man or woman [Ludlow] should have the right to meet his or her accusers face on.'

During the council meeting, Abbott had asked if there would be a council discussion about the deputy mayor issue, but Shadbolt said there would be no discussion under standing orders.

'Sadly I was ruled out of order when I asked to speak - the new appointment was a designed and planned outcome - even to the point that script was delivered just prior to the meeting for some councillors,' Abbott's Facebook post says.

A procedural motion was put into effect which, according to local government directive, does not allow debate or comment, he says.

However, it was 'interesting' that Ludlow and Amundsen had been able to speak at the meeting.

He questioned the fairness in that.

'Sound fair??? Hmmm Just saying,' his Facebook post says.

Abbott, speaking to Fairfax on Thursday, said he had not been aware the meeting of councillors in March to talk about Ludlow's performance was a 'social gathering', as Arnold had said.

'I was invited to a meeting to discuss the performance of the deputy mayor.'

Cr Ian Pottinger had invited him, he said.

'I said I wouldn't be going because he [Ludlow] wasn't going to be there for a right of response, and I also had another appointment.

'That's not the Southland way as far as I am concerned.'

Ludlow resigned on March 28, a week after the secret, informal meeting of councillors, which was held without Ludlow being invited.

Ten councillors and Shadbolt signed a requisition at that informal meeting to oust Ludlow as deputy mayor, however, it is understood the requisition was never invoked prior to Ludlow's resignation.

Shadbolt and the councillors did not publicly reveal they had signed the requisition order to oust Ludlow, only admitting it when approached by Fairfax.