Intentions for ECT mayoral seat?

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

A correspondent yesterday asked our mayoral candidates: “As an ECT trustee, will you reduce the cost of household electricity supply in Gisborne?” A better question might be, would you take up the mayoral seat on the trust?

For a start, the mayor or their nominee is just one of seven trustees; the ECT chairman has more influence. Second, at ECT’s recent annual meeting the chairman restated the trust’s preference for its existing distribution model — and a plan to distribute up to $120m over the next six years.

The ECT trust deed has quite a lot to say about the mayoral seat on the trust. It starts:

In appointing Trustees the Council shall ensure that the Mayor of Gisborne is one of the trustees of the Trust:

(i) If the Mayor is unable or unwilling to act, the Mayor may appoint an elected member of the Council as a trustee of the Trust. If the Mayor elects to appoint a Mayor’s Nominee, that election shall be made within two months of the Mayor coming into office under the Local Electoral Act 2001;

(ii) A Mayor’s Nominee shall be a Trustee from the date of appointment until the date of the next election under the Local Electoral Act 2001;

Six further sub-clauses follow, including that the Mayor can take up the seat or appoint a new nominee if their representative resigns, dies or is disqualified under the terms of the deed — but has to do so within two months.

Interestingly, for ECT’s first 21 years of existence Gisborne’s mayors nominated a sitting councillor on to the trust. Geoff Musgrave then Simon Cave held the position under John Clarke, and Alan Davidson then Brian Wilson did so for the first 12 and a half years of Mr Foon’s mayoralty. Then in 2014 Mr Foon took up the seat after he was challenged on this point by opponent Gary Hope during the 2013 election campaign.

One point to correct is a recent suggestion by the same correspondent that retiring councillor Mr Wilson could apply for an ordinary trustee position next May. The ECT deed states that “not more than one Trustee shall be a past employee or a past Councillor of the Council”, so Mr Wilson could only apply after Mr Clarke leaves the trust, and he is not due to retire by rotation until 2022.