By ANNE BESTON
The troubled Rodney District Council may seek a law change to allow it to carry on with a minder in place.
After a council meeting yesterday, mayor Doug Armstrong said councillors seemed to agree to push for an independent party to oversee day-to-day business while the council carried on until local body elections next year.
The only other option for the council appears to be to stand down, as recommended in a confidential report from a review authority appointed by the Minister for Local Government, Sandra Lee.
The authority's report, obtained by the Herald this week, found that the Orewa-based council, which serves a population of 75,000, is dysfunctional and cannot resolve conflicts of opinion in a rational and open manner.
It recommends that the council be replaced by a commissioner until the elections.
The minder option would require a change to the Local Government Act. Mr Armstrong said the issue would be discussed next week.
"I have to weigh up my own options and ask if these people really can work together," he said.
Some councillors were disappointed that the report did not name names, said Mr Armstrong.
They laid the blame for the council's problems on high-profile councillor Ross Meurant, but the report says that while an unnamed councillor had been inappropriate and disrespectful, his actions should not have produced the present crisis.
Mr Meurant said he was quite happy with the report, which "identified that the culture existed long before I arrived."
He did not think the unnamed councillor was necessarily him.
The authority members, Michael Gross and Alan Bickers, said they were reluctant to see the removal of local democracy through suspension of the council.
Auckland local government expert Professor Graham Bush said that if the council was sacked it would be almost without precedent in modern times.
A spokesman for Ms Lee said the minister felt it was inappropriate to comment on the report until she had received the views of interested parties next month.
Council could seek 'minder'
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