Councillors fail GMO test

Environment Southland councillors submit to National Environmental Standard


BRITTANY PICKETT

Last updated 05:00, August 13 2015
Environment Southland will make a submission on a government proposal to create a nationally consistent approach to managing plantation forestry, but agreeing on the wording was not smooth sailing.

Councillors debated an amendment to its submission on the proposed National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry at a council meeting on Wednesday.

The proposed NES would replace regional and district councils' existing district and regional plan rules for managing plantation forestry, creating a nationally consistent approach.

The submission outlines Environment Southland's concerns that the national environmental standard would have a huge impact on the rules the council has in place to manage forestry in Southland and says implementation of the standard could affect the management of regionally specific issues, such as implementing the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and the potential loss of further biodiversity values.

However, councillor Robert Guyton was concerned the council was ignoring an important part of the national environmental standard.

The proposal includes the permitted planting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

READ MORE: Guidelines an attack on democracy - councillor

Policy and Planning manager Anita Dawe said the council did not have a say on whether GMOs could be planted either way because it was not allowed for in the regional policy statement.

Dawe believed land use restrictions came under the jurisdiction of district councils.

Councillor Neville Cook questioned Guyton's need for an amendment.

"How would we know if such material would be brought in? Are we going to have border security? I don't think it is enforceable on a regional level."

Most councillors agreed it should remain a central government decision.

Councillors Jan Riddell and Guyton both proposed amendments to the submission, asking for a statement about the concerns of the council about GMO planting being a permitted activity.

It was time the council had an opinion on such matters, Riddell said.

"I think that it is about time that this council took a lead on this in the community and formed an opinion on GMO products."

Both amendments were scrapped, with only three council members voting for the amendments to be added.

Following the meeting, Guyton said he was very disappointed the council failed to even try to retain the powers it had to act on behalf of Southlanders.

He believed the council should shoulder the responsibility for deciding on local issues and not "fob" it off to government, he said.

"The majority of the councillors today showed they were unwilling to represent the views of Southland people on genetic engineering and instead preferred to let the government make the decision about whether Southland should lose its GMO-free status."

Timms: Ruby a 'stupid' act

The Southland Express story by Allison Rudd paints a less than flattering picture of chairwoman Timms, opening with, "Environment Southland chairman Ali Timms now leads a divided council after surviving a meeting where five of her councillors made it plain they wanted her gone."

Harsh, but true.

The story continues:

"The 7-5 vote of confidence in her leadership came at the conclusion of a sombre one-hour meeting last Thursday.
  Ms Timms earned the unanimous disapproval of her colleagues last month when she telephoned Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt on a regional television talk-back show and posed as Ruby, a mother of two whose husband had been made redundant from the Tiwai Point smelter.
  At the meeting, the councillors who wanted her gone spoke of her lack of remorse, saying she had breached the council's Code of Conduct and destroyed her credibility. They said her actions had impacted on the public's perceptions of the organisation as a whole, and that if she stayed she would be trying to lead a divided council.

Cr Brian mason said councillors had asked Ms Timms to resign at an extraordinary meeting on December 12, but she had refused. At that meeting, a majority of councillors had granted her request for six week's leave on full pay, a decision he said cost ratepayers "at least $7000".
  Other councillors said while they didn't condone her actions, one mistake had to be balanced against the good work she had done in her two years as chairwoman.
  Acing chairman Nicol Horrell said all councillors would be judged at October's local body elections.
  "Let the people decide then whether Ali or any of us should stay or go. I am comfortable with that."
  Ms Timms, who spoke last, apologised, saying she regretted her "stupid" and "dumb" actions and could assure people there would be no repeat.
  However, she said she had no intention of resigning.
  "I'm not a quitter. I'm not going anywhere, " she said.

Thursday is Timmsday

We meet on Thursday in the boardroom at ES (the public are welcome - please join us for what will be a fascinating look into how local politicians operate. Or you could find some wet paint and watch that dry :-) to thrash out the Timms affair. Already behind the scenes, there's been plenty of thrashing. Most of the action has been around the manner in which this meeting has been "shaped" by Acting Chairman Nicol Horrell and his supporters. Concern around the choice of "confidence" as the motion to be put has already been expressed in the media. Legal opinion said that the use of a motion of confidence is unprecedented in local body politics - they could find no previous case to base their opinion on. Votes of "no confidence" were the usual practice. Acting chairman Horrell said he chose a confidence motion because "it would be improper" for him to move a vote of no confidence in Ali Timms. I'm unsure how that could be, given that it's normal practice in other councils.
The agenda for the meeting provided another surprising aspect to the affair. It paints a rosy picture of our chairman and her attainments, but doesn't mention her fall from grace, described as "unacceptable" and given the council's stamp of "extreme disapproval", at all. In it, we read that Ms Timms has "been a hardworking and effective chairman" and that the meeting  "gives the council the opportunity to consider Ali's performance as chair since the last election", which all sounds very positive, doesn't it.
Latest in this series of "developments" is the news that Ms Timms will vote on the motion of "confidence"...in herself. At first hearing, this sounds ludicrous. Bias is something councillors are constantly challenged to avoid having and it's impossible to see how Ms Timms cannot be 100% biased when it comes to a vote to establish confidence in herself. Were she not intending to vote for herself, she'd have stood down by now, saving the council a good deal of money and time. It may be usual practice for someone in this position to vote I don't know, but it sure smells funny to me. I suspect there will be many Southland people, those interested in this democratic process anyway, who find that more than just a little curious. We'll see if there is any reaction following the drama of the day.
The individual councillors will each be presenting their view of Ms Timms "performance" and I'm certain there will be strong opinions expressed. It all comes down though, to the numbers. If Ms Timms can marshal 6 votes in her favour, then add her own, the motion of confidence will be passed.
I'm certain she will have been wearing out the leather on the bottom of her stylish shoes in the pursuit of support from many of the councillors, but I've not had her knocking at my door.
Perhaps she's taking my support for granted :-)
*Update - yes, legal opinion is that a person can indeed vote on a motion of confidence, even if it's in them selves, a matter of natural justice I've learned and I'm a supporter of that, that's for sure!
*Update on the update - not so, after looking more closely at the reply. The right to hear and be heard is covered by natural justice, but not the right to vote. That's the arguable aspect of this whole affair. You might think that it is unseemly to vote for yourself, if that vote was a deciding one. There are people watching this unfold with great interest.

"Why wouldn't I?" - Timms

Timms faces vote of confidence

Environment Southland chairwoman Ali Timms says she will attend a meeting on Thursday that will debate her retention or removal.


''I'll be there. Why wouldn't I be?'' she said yesterday when contacted at her Lumsden home.


Last month, Ms Timms earned the ''unanimous extreme disapproval'' of her fellow councillors by phoning Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt on a regional television talkback show posing as Ruby, a mother of two whose husband had been made redundant from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.


When outed, Ms Timms was granted six weeks' leave of absence.


Acting Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell issued a statement at the time saying her actions had been ''an unacceptable lapse of judgement'' and an extraordinary meeting of council would be held in late January to discuss whether councillors wanted her to stay or stand down.


The agenda for Thursday's meeting says councillors will vote on one recommendation - a vote of confidence in Ms Timms moved by Mr Horrell.


The meeting would be held in public and every councillor, including Ms Timms, given an opportunity to speak, he said yesterday.


There are 12 councillors and any motion requires a majority of seven votes to be carried.


Mr Horrell said his ''personal predisposition'' was that Ms Timms had done a good job until her lapse and should stay.


''None of us is infallible. Lessons have been learnt, I'm sure. This was very out of character for her.''


Even if councillors vote for Ms Timms to go, she will not be out immediately. A legal opinion says councillors have two options on Thursday: to support Mr Horrell's recommendation, or call another meeting to remove Ms Timms from her position. That meeting could be held no earlier than February 14.


Ms Timms declined to comment further yesterday.


allison.rudd@alliedpress.co.nz

Timms on agenda

Southland Times journalist Evan Harding rang me yesterday for comment about where the council was with their 'chairman' issue. I was happy to bring him up to speed with developments, believing that it's important that the public 'gets a look in' at what councillors are doing, and knowing that many of my fellow councillors are very reluctant to speak with 'the media'. In response, he wrote the following article for today's ST front page.

The fate of beleaguered Environment Southland chairwoman Ali Timms could be decided at an extraordinary meeting of the council on January 24.

Ms Timms was last month outed for making a hoax phone call to a Cue television talkback show.

Pretending to be a struggling mother of two called Ruby whose partner had been laid off at Tiwai, she repeatedly grilled Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt during the live television show about the city council's funding of the Auckland-to-Bluff yacht race.

When confronted about the hoax call, she told The Southland Times it was a practical joke.

Her actions were widely condemned by Environment Southland and Invercargill city councillors. Ms Timms subsequently took six weeks' paid leave until her future as chairwoman was decided.

Acting Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell yesterday said the January 24 meeting was to discuss the Environment Southland leadership.

He intended to move a motion of confidence in Ms Timms to enable councillors to express their views and take a vote.

If the majority of councillors voted for the motion, Ms Timms would remain as chairwoman; but if they voted against it another meeting would have to be held in 14 days' time and the vote would be put again, he said.

When asked why a motion of confidence in Ms Timms would be put and not one of no confidence, Mr Horrell said it would be improper for him as acting chairman to move a vote of no confidence.

A vote of confidence would have the same effect, he said.

Environment Southland councillor Robert Guyton said yesterday a vote of confidence was an inappropriate vehicle for the council to express its disapproval of Ms Timms' actions.

Legal advice suggested a vote of confidence had never been used in local body politics in New Zealand and the usual process was to move a vote of no confidence, he said.

Mr Guyton said he would listen to the views of the councillors around the table before deciding which way to vote, "but at this stage I feel there needs to be a change".

He believes Ms Timms should have taken the opportunity to stand down when she was "encouraged to do the honourable thing" by councillors at a meeting last month to discuss her actions.

She refused to stand down, Mr Guyton said, and it was her idea to take six weeks' leave.

"I don't think her position is tenable following her public dishonesty and I think she has jeopardised the relationship between the council and other [Southland] councils, particularly the Invercargill City Council."



Her dishonesty had also jeopardised the relationship between Environment Southland and the public, he said.

Mr Guyton said he would not be going for the chairmanship if Ms Timms was sacked, but he believed several councillors could fill the role very well, including Jan Riddell, "who enjoys excellent relationships with all of the agencies around Southland and is entirely trustworthy".

It was too early to say whether Ms Timms had the numbers to retain her position, Mr Guyton said.

Environment Southland councillor Ross Cockburn, who said last month that Ms Timms remained an excellent chairwoman, yesterday declined to say which way he would vote at the meeting.

The Southland Times ran an informal online poll last month asking readers whether Ms Timms should remain chairwoman of Environment Southland, with 59 voting yes and 237 voting no.

Ms Timms could not be contacted yesterday.

evan.harding@stl.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News

Confidence or no-confidence

Following Ms Timms unacceptable-to-the-council behaviour on Cue TV, where she impersonated a struggling young mum named 'Ruby' and denied the obvious deception when pressed by Invercargill mayor, Tim Shadbolt, the council has resolved to meet in January to deal with the question of her suitability as chairman of the council. It seemed obvious to me that any vote taken at that meeting would be one of no-confidence in the chairman, as a result of her behaviour, providing an opportunity for those who feel she should go to vote that way, and those who want her to stay to vote against the motion, but no, it turns out that the Acting Chairman, Nichol Horrell has proposed a vote of confidence in Ms Timms! I've always thought such a vote was taken when a council was looking to praise and reward its chair or mayor, for a job especially well done, a kind of official 'pat on the back'. Clearly that's not what should be happening here, if I am right in my interpretation. Still, we shall see. Legal advice has been sought and that should clarify the correctness or otherwise of Mr Horrell's move.

*Up-date:
The legal advice was returned this afternoon and they made this point:

" We have never come across a vote of confidence in the context of local government previously, so cannot comment on what it typically means in local government."

That tells me the proposal for a 'vote of confidence' is unprecedented, unusual and untested in local government. Why on earth would we use it then?

Cave and Murrell - quotes of the day

Mervyn Cave and Jack Murrell are stalwart letter-writers who contribute often to the Southland Times' YOUR VIEW column.
Today, each has a repeatable quote; Jack's on Judith Collins, Mervyn's on "Ruby" Timms.

Jack doesn't pussy-foot around:

"Judith Collin's ministerial dignity has vanished and in my eyes she is now a quaking, querulous cow."

Mervyn torments chairman Timms with a letter to "Ruby":

"I extend my sympathies to you over the trauma you would have suffered from having your identity stolen for nefarious political purposes."

Mervyn's taken to mocking the ES chairman for her lamentable behaviour and he's not the only one. I hear it everywhere I go.

Resignation call

Responses from the general public to "Ruby" Timms' hoax call are being taken into account by the councillors of Environment Southland and no doubt by on-holiday chairman Timms herself. This one from today's "YOUR VIEW" column of the Southland Times has it right, in my view:

Resignation call

Ali Timms should resign as chairwoman of Environment Southland immediately.
  Her deceitful action was deliberate and premeditated, and there is no place in local government for such unacceptable and dishonest behaviour.
  In 1995, when Hon John Carter, Bay of Islands MP rang a Northland radio station and pretended to be a Maori called Hone he was sacked as senior whip.
  Ms Timms behaviour has been widely reported throughout the country and featured on television.
  Environment Southland by association has been brought into disrepute.
  Environment Southland councillors as a whole have compounded the issue by agreeing to a six-week stand down, when in fact decisive action was required.
  Mayor Tim Shadbolt deserves congratulations for his dignity and composure throughout this unsavoury incident.
TERRY KING
Invercargill

Wintering barns

Yesterday's tour of Southland's wintering facilities was an eye-opener - the scale, the scale! This shed in particular was gargantuan - 198 metres long (you can just see the figures of the Councillors in the distance). So huge is the 'barn' that it has to be swept by a looks-like-a-flattened-Dalek-robot, that hums up and down the isle, whisking uneaten cow-meal away. Our female Councillors were particularly interested in the cow-stalls. Both tried out the bedding for comfort and seemed keen to get in early with a booking. Our host patiently explained the niceties and presumably offered a reasonable price. The blokes, meanwhile, went outside to look at the technology. Anything that moved attracted our attention and if it had gears, all the better. Councillor Currie and I found ourselves in the poo, again. Rowley's waving, not drowning.

Concrete and steel as far as the eye can see.

Marion considers her stall while Ali settles into hers.

The Dalek Sweeper. About the size of a spa bath.

Over our heads in the brown stuff.

Not Bill English

Ali Timms, Environment Southland chairman, has not addressed her admonishments (in today's Southland Times) to this man, Conor English, Federated Farmers CEO, but to his brother, Bill English, Deputy Prime Minister. English went into bat for the federation following the grumpy walkout by federation members, who couldn't bear to hear the contrary opinion of their chairman, Hugh Gardyne speaking in the ES boardroom last week. English makes claims on behalf of the Federated Farmers, despite not being their CEO, claims that Timms quite rightly disputes. Perhaps English's claims to the Times were in fact, English's and the otherwise attentive Mr Tulett mixed the Christian names inadvertently, who can say? "Could the real Mr English come forward", I can almost here people say, "we're feeling a little bamboozled!"

*  Prior to this appointment Mr English was Commercial Director and second-in-charge of The Property Group, a consultancy with 80 staff. He is the former chief executive officer of the New Zealand Property Institute and has had roles in other lobby groups and in the Beehive.

Timms on the Greens

Southland Regional Council chairman, Ali Timms recently flew to Auckland to attend the Bluegreen forum. The Bluegreens are a splinter of the National Party log, that would, if it could, attract some 'green' vote from the New Zealand public. They failed, at the last election, to do so, according to Ms Timms' report  published in the agenda for the up-coming Ordinary Meeting of Council. In the report, our chairman states that "there was widespread acknowledgement that the Green Party has captured most of NZ's green vote." This is no great surprise to a Green like myself and the reasons for National's failure to appeal to the green thinker are obvious - pimping mining, drilling and fracking, the strangulation on the Department of Conservation, the opening up of our marine areas for aquaculture etc, etc are not behaviors that appeal to the environmentally-aware New Zealander, looking to use their vote to protect our country's natural beauty.
I wish I'd been at the conference myself - I'd happily have put them straight on where they are going wrong.
Ms Timms closed her report with a rather odd statement, saying,
"Quote of the day, was about someone "who  has voted for the Greens even though their social manifesto was rubbish".
I wonder why she wrote that?
I'll ask at Wednesday's meeting.

Letters I like

This letter from a P. Clifford of Invercargill in today's Southland Times is the kind that makes me feel that there are many people in our community that know what democracy is all about. Titled 'Preconceived ideas' slur is laughable' by the Times, the letter says:
"So the former head of Environment Southland is concerned that Cr Robert Guyton may have had some preconceived ideas on the environment before he was voted in?
  Laughable.
  Doesn't he realise that's why I and many others voted for him in the first place?
  Does anyone think maybe that Stuart Collie had his own preconceived ideas when he was voted in considering his former background in the farming lobby group Federated Farmers?
  Look at the state of our environment and ask yourself just what kind of job he did when he was running the show.
  I say we need more like Robert."

That's a very encouraging letter, both at a personal level and where it shows that people are looking to see what really is happening in their own backyards and not just accepting the assurances of those who have been elected to plum positions. In saying that, I'll post all letters that come in on the subject and expect that there will be some that don't echo P.Clifford's and present a different view. That's what it's all about!