Napier City Council's elected members have voted on who should be deputy mayor.
Long-term Napier city councillor Graeme Taylor has been named Napier’s third deputy mayor in a month.
He was the only nomination at an extraordinary meeting of the council today, nominated by original appointee Sally Crown and seconded by Nigel Simpson, an unsuccessful candidate for the mayoralty at the October 9 election.
Taylor was a prominent representative rugby player and provincial coach with experience in management when he was first elected to the council in 2013.
The meeting was called for 12.45pm on Tuesday and was over 16 minutes later, five months to the day after Mayor Richard McGrath appointed third-term councillor Crown to the position.
The appointment came after he was declared Napier’s 21st mayor, after winning a three-way election in which two-term incumbent Kirsten Wise was the first Napier mayor in 92 years to be unseated at the vote.
McGrath had also been top-polling candidate in the council’s new Napier Central ward, after 11 years as a councillor, which began at a byelection in 2014.
But the appointment of Crown as his mayoral deputy lasted fewer than 100 days before he called for her resignation, and then dismissed her when she refused.
Having appointed new councillor Roger Brownlie, the mayor agreed last week to turn his back on the power to make the appointment and put the job to the vote at an extraordinary council meeting.
The formal process necessitated Brownlie’s resignation, before nominations could be made.
Crown said last week she would not seek election to the position.
Today, the council, with all councillors present, was offered two voting processes, opting for single-vote first past the post.
Both Crown and seconder Simpson spoke to the nomination before the vote, and Taylor, aged in his early 70s and known affectionately from rugby days as “GK”, spoke before the mayor closed the meeting just after 1pm.
Crown said that over recent weeks council members had worked hard to address concerns about “process, communications and how we work collectively as a council”, with particular input representing the experience of Taylor, a Taradale ward councillor.
“And let me be very clear,” she said. “This has never been about undermining the democratic choice voters made in electing a mayor, and it has never been about challenging the powers of the mayoral role.
“Those powers exist for a reason, and they are part of the framework that we all work within,” she said.
“What this has been about is how those powers are exercised in practice, and it has been about process, transparency and making sure decisions affecting our city are made in a way that is inclusive, lawful and consistent with good governance.”
The process had “not been easy for anyone, but it is part of the job”, she said.
Crown said Tuesday’s steps were “a clear signal that we are moving forward collectively” and about a “culture and setting the tone for the rest of the term”.
Simpson thanked the “elected body”, including the mayor, for stepping up with “courage” and for “setting a clearer picture for our city as to how we want to operate”.
Thanking the council, Taylor said: “Leadership is at its best when people are brought together. I see my role as a catalyst to bring us all together to work collectively and collaboratively for the good of this city.
“Thank you for the opportunity,” he said. “I’m ready to start it.”
Former councillor Maxine Boag, who had 18 years at the table before standing down last year, earlier told Hawke’s Bay Today that when she first joined the council in 2007 it was in the Standing Orders that a mayor’s recommendation for deputy mayor would be put to the inaugural meeting of the incoming council.
The mayor at the time was Barbara Arnott, who recommended Kathy Furlong as deputy, and Boag said: “I don’t recall there being any dissension.”
The power for the mayor to make the appointment followed changes to the Local Government Act, which came into effect at the 2013 elections.
October 9: Local elections with three candidates for the Napier City Council mayoralty – Richard McGrath (sitting councillor), Nigel Simpson (sitting councillor), Kirsten Wise (sitting mayor).
October 16: Mayoral election result declared – Richard McGrath (sitting councillor) 10,185 (elected); Kirsten Wise 6763; Nigel Simpson 3989.
October 17: Richard McGrath announces appointment of councillor Sally Crown as Deputy Mayor.
October 30: Inaugural meeting of new council.
February 23: The Mayor calls for the resignation of Sally Crown as Deputy Mayor, she refuses and is dismissed from the position.
February 27: The Mayor appoints first-term councillor Roger Brownlie as Deputy Mayor.
March 10: After a private meeting with councillors, the Mayor chose not to use his authority to appoint a deputy mayor of his choosing, and to call for nominations and a vote at an extraordinary meeting of the council.
March 17: Graeme Taylor appointed Deputy Mayor.
Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter based in Napier, where he has worked as a journalist for 38 years, covering events and issues throughout the region.