Napier City councillor Keith Price, in his role as a basketball chairman, has ruled himself out of the council debate on gaming venue policy. Photo / File
Napier City councillor Keith Price, in his role as a basketball chairman, has ruled himself out of the council debate on gaming venue policy. Photo / File
The Napier City Council will stage its triennial gaming venues policy review hearing on Tuesday with a possibility councillors' declarations of a conflict of interest could risk the chances of getting a quorum.
Councillors are not required to declare a conflict until the start of the meeting, but the councilconfirmed four had been declared by late Monday.
Two are Cr Maxine Boag, an opponent of the gaming machines, particularly in lower socio-economic areas, who has ruled herself out, as has Cr Keith Price, a former part-owner of premises with gaming machines and chairman of Basketball Hawke's Bay and the Hawks basketball franchise, which have been recipients of funding from gaming-machine proceeds.
The Napier City Council has itself been a recipient, with several grants together valued at over $60,000 in the last three years included in evidence submitted by grants foundation Pub Charity.
The hearing, relating to numbers of gaming machines in the city, takes the form of a full-council extra meeting, which is scheduled to hear submission in person from up to 24 of the 105 who submitted in writing after the council initiated the process in December.
Declarations of a conflict of interest are largely seen as a protection of the integrity of the council process, with debate ongoing about the level at which a conflict occurs, and on whether being involved with an affected party is necessarily an obstruction or impediment in the process.
Having declared a conflict councillors cannot take part in the decision process, and Cr Price said: "I don't think I'll be around long."
The council has 12 members and the mayor, of which there must be a quorum of at least seven.
