A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
The partitioning clearly evident within the councillorship of Gisborne District Council and the thrusting being waged on the council benches to challenge and unseat the Mayoress were scuttled last Friday without even a feeble mewl.
The battle lines were drawn in Two Wards Proposal, None Rural — GH 7Oct21 —
when eight town councillors outvoted six; four rural councillors plus the Mayoress and her deputy, to erase rural representation for the 2022 elections.
During a meeting at Gisborne District Council three weeks later — Residents anti-vax tirade disrupts council meeting GH29Oct21 — five councillors retired from the meeting when a representation from a member of the public went off script. There was no security threat to the safety of those present within chambers and the “posse”, having decided that they weren't going to “listen or represent”, beat their retreat without even as much as a haka or pukana in defiance. All five of the “posse” had earlier voted for two wards, none rural.
The Mayor's Casting Vote saves rural wards — GH5Nov21 — revealed a switcheroo had taken place following the earlier Two Wards Proposal: a waka jumper appeared who scored a fist-pumping equaliser which to the thrill of the Mayoress gave her the casting vote, ensuring the continuation of rural representation and the erasure of all representations which had intoned that “elected representatives represented the entire district”.
The Mayoress's casting vote was a double whammy for the “posse” and their leader Smeagol, whose wanting of the precioussss Mayoral Chains may require further planning.
