Diplomatic much?

Kimberly Crayton-Brown, reporter for the Southland Times, rang me last night after reading my 'check your chair' post, with questions about our plans to dissect our chairwoman's performance, and that of our selves, with a system of performance appraisal. Kimberly was quite keen for me to rate the ES chairman Ali Timms, and while I was sorely tempted to make mischief, I told the truth, saying that I believed 'no surprises' was an important part of an assessment like that, and that we hadn't laid down the criteria for appraisal yet, though I did have a number in my head :-)
Here's Kimberly's piece.

An Environment Southland councillor wants the performances of council members assessed but says a blog post on the topic is about openness and transparency, not a comment on the performance of the chairwoman.
Councillor Robert Guyton asked in a blog post yesterday whether councils should assess the performance of their well-paid "talking heads".
Cr Guyton told The Southland Times last night he had raised the idea before a council meeting on Wednesday.
"We have a caucus opportunity at 8.30am where we talk in a casual, friendly way about the issues. I brought it up right at the end and it was well received."
He thought it would be a good idea to have an ongoing system to assess a chairperson, and other councillors suggested the idea be extended to cover councillors, too.
"It gives you good feedback with how everyone is performing, and it gives the public a good opportunity to get a look at how councillors regard each other," he said.
While the council did not have a performance assessment system in place, it was an idea that had been floated before, Cr Guyton said. It was not a matter of personal opinion, it was setting criteria so people knew what they were going to be judged by.
When asked to rate the council chairman and councillors' performance, Cr Guyton said it was not fair to ask someone to rate their fellow councillors without some framework to work around.
"It needs to be fair for everyone; it is not a punitive system," he said.
Councillor Marion Miller was looking into possible criteria for an assessment and councillor Nicol Horrell was investigating performance assessments used by other councils, Mr Guyton said.
THE BLOG POST:
"Should councils assess the performance of their chairs? "Not the cigar-burned, port-stained, over-stuffed leather numbers that enfold and soothe us when we meet, but our `talking heads', be they chairman, chairwoman or chairperson.
We all do it, casually and incidentally, of course, as we go about our business – chairs demand our attention with their throat-clearing, icy stares, little gongs and so on, and can dominate proceedings, but are anecdotal ratings of their performance enough? I'd like to see a formalised process for assessing our well-paid chairpeople.
"Councillors too, should be measured, performance-wise.
"Our council is pursuing the idea right now, having had the concept presented to them yesterday. By me. "I think it's very important that we scrutinise our chair and in turn be scrutinised by each other. "I'll keep you up with the play, as it evolves."
- The Southland Times