Wellington City councillor Fleur Fitzsimons. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Wellington City councillor Fleur Fitzsimons. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Wellington City councillor Fleur Fitzsimons has been forced to withdraw and apologise after calling the council a "deeply undemocratic" organisation at times.
She made the comments after she was blocked from tabling legal advice obtained in support of her being able to freely express opinions on Wellington's closed central library,
Draft consultation documents were before councillors today outlining the future of the building, which has been closed since March 2019 due to seismic concerns.
The most expensive repair option, and therefore the most resilient, would cost between $174.4 million and $199.8m and bring the building to 100 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).
Council officers have recommended this as the council's preferred option, but Fitzsimons has made no secret of her opposition to that idea.
She said a $200m bill was "out of touch" with the reality the city was facing following Covid-19 and other infrastructure spend pressures.
That has ruffled a few feathers after council officers stressed the council must be seen to be open to all practical remediation options under the Local Government Act.
Fitzsimons addressed her colleagues at a meeting today referring to an email she was sent from Mayor Andy Foster on Friday containing legal advice warning against "speaking her mind" on the issue.
The email was sent to all councillors, some of whom characterised it as the mayor trying to silence them.
Foster declined to comment.
Fitzsimons tried to table her own rushed legal letter in response to Foster's email at the meeting today.
"Basically it points out that it is actually quite damaging to suggest it's anything but appropriate to have a different view among councillors and council management," she said.
Lawyer Graeme Edgeler supplied Fitzsimons with that legal advice, noting the requirement was for councillors to have an open mind, not an empty one.
"The risk that someone sues remains, of course, and councillors should always be careful to not indicate an unmovable position on a matter they have or will put out for consultation, but councillors are entitled to express a view on what proposal should be put to the public, which indeed, they have to formally express a view to even start the process," he said in the letter.
But no sooner had hard copies of the document been dished out to colleagues, Foster put the kibosh on it and adjourned the meeting.
"The immediate advice I've had is we are not going to allow that to be able to be tabled," Foster said.
Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow then addressed councillors confirming the document couldn't be tabled because it related to legally privileged information and was not relevant to the item under debate.
That didn't go down well with Fitzsimons who then hit back.
"What's happened now is very unfortunate and we have a problem with low voter turnout in local government and I find this organisation at times to be deeply undemocratic and I think today was an illustration of that."
Foster told her to withdraw and apologise.
Fitzsimons initially asked "what for?", then withdrew the comment but refused to apologise, however later also made the apology.
Wellington's central library has been closed since March 2019 due to seismic concerns. Photo / Georgina Campbell.
Foster indicated the legal wrangle over what city councillors could and couldn't say about the library would be addressed at a later date but said for the moment it would be better to "downplay rather than escalate" the situation.
Last week more details were released about three options to strengthen the building to varying NBS levels.
The options put before councillors today are same ones released in May this year, but the decision-making process has changed after councillors voiced concerns things weren't moving quickly enough.
To expedite the process, council officers have come up with an option of using what is called a Statement of Proposal (SOP) under the Local Government Act.
It will speed up the decision-making process by six to nine months by bringing forward consultation required under the Long Term Plan, which is considered the quickest option available to council.
Foster said the Local Government Act required the council to encourage public feedback and to conduct the process with an open mind.
"We've got to go out there using two ears a bit more than we use one mouth.
"We can say which ones we like, we can say the reasons we like them but we must be open to public feedback that is our obligation and so often we get told by the community we don't listen."
He urged councillors to "keep the process safe" with so much money at stake.
