Tairua-Pāuanui Community Board member Cath Wightman resigns

Cath Wightman in 2021. Photo / Alison Smith

First term Tairua-Pāuanui Community Board member Cath Wightman has resigned after leaving the area for work.

Wightman was elected to the board with 978 votes at the 2022 Thames-Coromandel local government elections.

Tairua-Pāuanui Community Board chairman Warwick Brooks confirmed her resignation on Friday as the board prepares to discuss the options at a meeting on Monday.

“Unfortunately, Cath has resigned her position, Cath resides in Raglan permanently now and has a work commitment that makes it difficult to continue to actively be a part of our community board,” he said.

A long-term Coromandel resident, Wightman went public with her cancer story in 2021, enduring treatment during the country’s level 4 lockdown.

Brooks works alongside board deputy chairman Chris New, board member Barry Roberts, district councillor Gary Gotlieb and deputy mayor Terry Walker.

There are now two options, with the community board to decide whether the vacancy on the Tairua-Pāuanui Community Board be filled by appointment or left vacant for the remainder of the term.

The vacancy is within one year of the next local government elections, so a by-election is not necessary.

In a report to the community board, Thames-Coromandel governance manager Ariana Hay presented both options with a list of advantages and disadvantages.

If the vacancy was to be filled there would be costs to determine the process for selecting an appointee as there was no statutory process.

There might be difficulty filling the position and remuneration costs for the remainder of the triennial general election would have to be considered.

The advantage of filling the position could enable another voice, representative, and advocate of the community while enabling diversity in community board member skillsets, experience and backgrounds.

If the board wanted to fill the vacancy it would have to decide on a process or criteria of appointment and then select a new member which would then be considered by the board at a subsequent meeting and publicly notified, giving details of the criteria by which the person named in the resolution was selected for appointment.