Hastings councillor Damon Harvey isn't commenting on being replaced as chair of the performance and monitoring committee. Photo / NZME
Hastings councillor Damon Harvey isn't commenting on being replaced as chair of the performance and monitoring committee. Photo / NZME
The Hastings District Council’s unusual decision to replace the chair or deputy chair on five of its committees is a “perfectly legitimate” thing to do, a local government expert says.
The council voted on October 26 to make the changes, citing “resilience and succession planning” as a reason.
Lawrence Yule,who was Hastings Mayor from 2001 to 2007, before serving as MP for Tukituki from 2017 to 2020, says he’s never heard of another council doing it before, but that doesn’t mean it’s unreasonable.
Yule now runs a consultancy firm - Yule Alexander - that specialises in areas such as governance and he also contracts to the HDC.
On that basis, he prefers to discuss changes to the leadership of council committees in general terms, rather than Hastings-specific ones.
“It wouldn’t be common practice, but there’s nothing to preclude it because any member, whether they’re the deputy mayor or any committee chair, they’re there at the discretion of the whole council,” Yule said.
“So the mayor is the only person who can stay, because they’re elected at large. All the rest are voted by the council.”
A former chair of Local Government New Zealand, Yule says the change in committee leadership is “perfectly legitimate and perfectly legal”.
“I haven’t heard of it before, but that’s not to say it hasn’t happened before,’’ said Yule.
Hawke’s Bay Today recently contacted the HDC, seeking clarification of why councillor Damon Harvey was no longer chair of the performance and monitoring committee.
Harvey, a former mayoral candidate who is in his third term as councillor, has declined to speak publicly on the matter.
Former Mayor of Hastings Lawrence Yule. Photo / NZME
“A number of changes have been made a year into this council term,” the HDC said in response.
“Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst signalled at the start of the triennium that, particularly given the number of new councillors, she would be reviewing chair positions to ensure new councillors had the opportunity to build their skills and experience.
“This is important for resilience and succession planning.
“One of those changes includes the replacement of councillor Damon Harvey as chair of the council’s performance and monitoring committee.”
Yule says changing the leadership of five committees isn’t something he’s ever done.
“I remember when I was mayor I said on the odd occasion, ‘We’re going to have a look at this structure in 18 months’, once I had a better idea of who was likely to return or not,” said Yule.
“Succession planning is a big issue for councils, so it’s not unheard of to think like this. Whether they’ve formally done it is a different thing.”
In this instance, Yule says, if the potential changes were signposted and the council agreed to it “then I see nothing wrong with that”.
The full list of new appointments are:
Councillor Wendy Schollum: Chair of the Strategy and Recovery Committee
Councillor Michael Fowler: Chair of the Performance and Monitoring Committee
Councillor Eileen Lawson: Deputy Chair of the Strategy and Recovery Committee
Councillor Ana Apatu: Chair of the Community Wellbeing Subcommittee
Councillor Marcus Buddo: Deputy Chair of the Performance and Monitoring Committee
Hamish Bidwell joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2022 and works out of the Hastings newsroom.
