Invercargill City councillors' directorship roles to come to end

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Invercargill City councillor Ian Pottinger.

Councillor Ian Pottinger has successfully put an end to elected members being directors on Invercargill City Council controlled companies.

Pottinger tabled a motion at the council meeting on Tuesday night wanting for councillors to not to be included as directors on council-owned Holdco and its subsidiaries in the future.

According to the companies website, elected members of the city council who are directors on council-controlled companies are Sir Tim Shadbolt, Graham Lewis, Darren Ludlow and Lindsay Thomas.

Ludlow and Lewis abstained from voting on the motion, while Thomas and Shadbolt did opt to.

Both Shadbolt and Thomas said their time in directorship roles were coming to an end and they felt comfortable in both discussing and voting on the motion without any conflict of interest.

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Thomas spoke passionately about his belief that the council should be represented on Holdco via councillors as directors.

He was concerned 'with one stroke of the pen' at the meeting that council representation would be lost.

Thomas and Shadbolt both suggested the various organisations which they had been directors on had proved successful and did not deem the change necessary.

Councillor Karen Arnold, who has previously been a director, also spoke in favour of having councillors as directors.

She was concerned that by agreeing to the motion the council would rule out any future councillors becoming a director with a council-owned company, even if that person might have a strong expertise in directorship roles.

Councillor Lesley Soper shared similar thoughts and said if a councillor wanted to apply to be a director of Holdco, like any member of the public could, they should be able to.

Councillors in support of Pottinger's motion felt if a person chose to run for council their role as a councillor should be their sole focus, not also as a director of a council-owned company.

Councillor Allan Arnold said councillors 'should never have to walk away' from voting as a councillor because there was a conflict through their role as a director on a council-owned company.

Councillor Lindsay Abbott said he campaigned on councillors not taking up directorships roles so supported Pottinger.

Councillor Alex Crackett endorsed Pottinger's motion and said she had been waiting a long time to see the change implemented.

Councillor Toni Biddle also said she had been looking forward to seeing the practice come to an end.

When the motion was put to the vote Pottinger's motion was supported seven votes to four.

The four who voted against the motion were Shadbolt, Thomas, Soper, and Karen Arnold, while both Lewis and Ludlow not voting.

The change will come in at the start of the new council's three-year term following the elections in October.