Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark says he will not resign

Friday, 21 June 2024

Under-fire Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark’s has declared he will not resign.

Clark’s behaviour at a firefighters’ prize-giving dinner in March was discussed at a council meeting which started at 2pm today.

Clark has copped heavy criticism this week, and there have been calls for his resignation after the council released an independent report outlining his behaviour at an United Fire Brigades’ Association dinner.

At the opening of the meeting, Clark gave a statement - finishing with “I will not be resigning”.

In a letter of complaint to the Invercargill City Council, the association accused Clark of mocking and embarrassing guests and expressing disturbing and offensive views.

Dinner attendees told the report writer, lawyer Linda Clark, that the mayor repeatedly denigrated a female MC, insulted firefighters and made disparaging remarks about young people.

Her investigation determined the mayor had breached the council’s code of conduct.

In his statement, Clark said “I've read the report. I believe it's overly harsh but I accept the outcome.

“Over four years as deputy mayor and now as mayor I've spoken at over 300 meetings and a third of those are public meetings. I accept that on two occasions - one being the subject of this complaint - I did not perform well.

“I have taken steps to ensure there are no competing concerns and those steps are around the media access to myself and also around public speaking.

“To those who have publicly sought my resignation, I need to declare that I will not be resigning.”

He then left the meeting.

Councillors made an unanimous vote that Clark made a material breach of code of conduct.

They were each asked to speak on the matter.

Lesley Soper believed Clark's apology was insufficient. Steve Broad asked the mayor to consider whether he was medically fit for the role. Grant Dermody called Clark’s actions an error of judgment but believed he was genuine and remorseful. Ian Pottinger said Clark should resign. Barry Stewart believed that Clark came back too early after his heart surgery.

Alex Crackett called Clark’s behaviour ageist, racist and sexist. While this was the first incident to make it to the council table, she had heard this behaviour herself, she said.

Ria Bond said the council needed medical proof of his brain fade and how long it would last. Trish Boyle said that while she was extremely disappointed to have been put in this position, she still believed there was a way forward.

Allan Arnold said he thought Clark should be allowed a chance to make amends. Peter Kett said he prayed Clark had learnt his lesson.

Darren Ludlow was not at the meeting and deputy mayor Tom Campbell chaired the meeting.

Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook said she found Clark’s comments that disrespected young women to be distressing and “wildly inappropriate”, but she wasn't surprised he said them.

A motion to ask him to resign was not passed.

Those who voted for him to resign were Broad, Crackett, Bond, Soper and Pottinger.

Those who voted against were Stewart, Boyle, Dermody, Kett, Arnold and Campbell.

However, councillors voted that a letter of censure would be sent to the mayor, Clark needed to apologies to another person, Miss X, raised in the independent report, the public and council and will strongly recommend he delegates public engagements to the deputy mayor or other delegate.

Clark has already apologised to the UFBA adn earlier cited “brain fade” caused by being on a heart-lung machine during his double heart bypass surgery in January as the reason behind the offensive behaviour.