One term Dunedin City councillor Hilary Calvert is disillusioned with what she claims are undemocratic agenda driven practices in Dunedin City and won’t be standing again. She also took a shot at mayor Dave Cull.
Calvert was an ACT MP for about a year, taking over from David Garrett when he resigned in 2010. She stood for Dunedin mayor and council in 2013 and was elected a councillor.
ODT: Disillusioned with council
Dunedin city councillor Hilary Calvert announced yesterday she will not stand in this year’s elections, but not before taking parting shots at some of her colleagues and Mayor Dave Cull.
She said she was unable to make a difference in a council dominated by councillors “whose focus is on carrying out activities for the benefit of the planet and on advising central government on how they may go about their business, not ours”.
I think that one of the best ways to make a difference is as an elected councillor, and standing for mayor again would give her the opportunity to highlight the problems as she saw them, but she has chosen not to do that. She also chose not to stand again for Parliament in 2011.
“This preoccupation has been at the expense of the proper and transparent governance of the city.”
She took aim at what she said were “covert meetings” of councillors and staff before councillors went through “the role play of consulting ratepayers, only to ignore their views”.
“The council meetings held in public are therefore largely irrelevant.”
Cr Calvert (61) said the big issues for ratepayers – cycleways, fraud, what council-owned companies were doing, and maintenance of mud-tanks – were “never on the agenda of council meetings until a rearguard action happens after the problems are identified by others”.
“Unfortunately, I cannot foresee this changing. For me enduring council as some kind of disingenuous spectator sport is unsustainable.”
Unfortunately if no one stands up to undemocratic processes then they are likely to continue.
If Calvert had stood again she would have had a very good chance of being re-elected as councillor. She was the highest polling candidate for council and came second to Cull in the mayoralty.
There is a danger that the Green influence in council in Dunedin will be strengthened this year if strong candidates with alternate views don’t stand, and an existing public profile is almost a necessity.
On her allegations of covert meetings, Cr Calvert said the sharing of thoughts and understanding of issues often happened at workshops and briefings that were not public.
For example, the second generation district plan process went to workshops, and if councillors had concerns they would tell staff. If something was going “where some councillors would not like it to go” that discussion was not public.
Councillors with other views did not have the opportunity to discuss them in public.
Once a public council meeting took place, such policies were “fairly much in completed form” or could not be challenged.
“By that stage it’s almost a done deal.”
If that is true – and from what I’ve observed there may well be some basis to her claims – then claims by the mayor and some elected councillors of adequate consultation in the last campaign ring hollow.
I have seen a number of examples of jacked up apparent public support for things that the council does.
Asked if having green-leaning councillors was the will of voters, Cr Calvert said green concerns were the focus at the expense of local concerns “which we are not short of”.
Voters chose the current mayor and council, but it can be debated whether the council put the will of voters ahead of their own agendas.
The issue of parking space losses because of cycleways was one example, where residents took a petition to the council “but we didn’t take a blind bit of notice of them”.
“I don’t think when people voted the current council in that’s what they were anticipating.
There has been a lot of angst about the preference given to more cycleways and less car parks, especially when existing cycleways are not well utilised.
For example car parks were converted into cycle ways on both sides on Anzac Avenue. I travel there frequently, and cyclists don’t. It is unusual to spot a cyclist.
It will be interesting to see how much of an issue this is this election.
Calvert also had words for Mayor Cull.
Cr Calvert also took aim at Mr Cull, saying it was “quite clearly not a good position to be disagreeing with him”.
“You could find yourself discouraged from continuing, either quite actively or passively, to ask questions”.
Disagreements between Cull and another councillor, Lee Vandervis, have raged throughout this term to the extent that disciplinary action has been taken against Vandervis (whose city heart is in the right place but can be a bit hot headed at times).
Cull stood for the mayoralty last election and won easily (Calvert came second, Vandervis came third) and intends to stand again both for the mayoralty and for council this year.
I stood for both council and mayor in 2013 to see how things worked and yeah, I have some major concerns, but the reality is that without an existing public profile or a political party to promote you, it’s difficult to attract media attention or votes amongst a crowd of candidates.
Most voters know little about the council or candidates.
It will be interesting to see whether there’s a backlash against ‘green-leaning’ voters or whether they strengthen their grip on Dunedin.
