Samantha Motion: There must be a better way to sort out council bickering

Bicker, bicker, bicker. Photo / Getty Images

COMMENT

"I wonder why we fight so much in the Bay of Plenty," a councillor recently mused to me.

There does seem to be a lot of argy-bargy going on across the region - in public meetings and confidential ones, at community events, and on social media. Especially on social media.

In chambers, clashes between certain elected officials have become so common that it is remarkable when they agree on something.

Most of this is par for the course in democratic politics. There are rules - a Code of Conduct for elected member behaviour and Standing Orders for meetings - but overall, robust debate is encouraged and protected, as it should be.

Sometimes it has an air of pointless pontificating, sure, but I have seen it change minds every now and again.

And even when it doesn't change anyone's mind, it puts on record elected members' justifications for their voting decisions.

Occasionally, it gets personal. It may even stray into the defamatory.

There are certain privilege protections for things said in the likes of council meetings, and there is also a chairperson whose job it is to apply the rules fairly so people can't just run their mouths. They can draw on advice from council democracy and legal staff.

And yet still, we get complaints about conduct in meetings.

In the wild west of social media there are even fewer controls, so that's an increasingly rich vein of complaints.

I'm sure ratepayers wouldn't care much if not for the fact that these complaints can kick off an investigation process that can run up costs into the tens of thousands.

That's you and me shelling out $15,000 so some people whose salaries we pay can sort out their in-fighting.

Sometimes this will be justified, depending on the nature and seriousness of the complaint.

This is not a normal job - they don't have a single manager they can complain to, or a political party leadership to go to.

But in other cases, there has got to be a better way. Actions driven by ego, stubbornness, a personality clash, the insistence on having the last word, a desire to publicly embarrass someone or to make a point of petty principle should be avoided.

Elected representatives need to think carefully before they wield the big stick of a formal complaint.

Same goes for those on the other side, who should take careful stock of their actions and motivations before deciding how far to take their defence.

The formal process should be a last resort, when all other means of ironing out the disagreement without racking up a bill for ratepayers, have failed.