He claimed ratepayers had not been told the final structure of the water entity\u2019s \u201cboard\u201d would comprise three councillors, three iwi representatives and three appointed experts.<\/p>\n
Gibson said the council needed to stop work on progressing the proposed water services entity governance structure or he would initiate a judicial review.<\/p>\n
At a council meeting on April 2, Gibson failed in his bid to remove mana whenua representative Mike Paku from the Shareholder Representative Forum.<\/p>\n
Paku was to be one of the council\u2019s three proposed representatives, alongside Schollum and Hastings Deputy Mayor Michael Fowler.<\/p>\n
Gibson asked for an amendment, saying Paku\u2019s appointment should be removed as a recommendation.<\/p>\n
It prompted strong challenges from several councillors. The amendment was voted down 13-2, with only Gibson and councillor Simon Nixon voting for it.<\/p>\n
Schollum said Gibson\u2019s challenge was based on an understanding of the Local Water Done Well structure that was \u201cplainly wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said there was some confusion in the community about the new entity and the respective roles of the shareholding councils, the Shareholder Representative Forum and the entity\u2019s board.<\/p>\n
Schollum said the forum, which Gibson has publicly referred to as the \u201cboard\u201d, was a co-ordination and advisory body only.<\/p>\n
Its principal purpose was to bring together the views of the three shareholder councils (Hastings, Napier and Central Hawke\u2019s Bay, with their 39 councillors) and provide clear positions and advice as required.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernance decisions remain with elected members of the three councils, acting as shareholders while operational decisions sit with an independent board of directors,\u201d Schollum said.<\/p>\n
She said councillors had multiple opportunities to engage, ask questions and work through the nuance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when our community wants well-informed councillors laser-focused on keeping costs down and making good decisions for our ratepayers and residents, this kind of action does the opposite \u2013 diverting time and ratepayer-funded resources away from that important work,\u201d Schollum said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes it all the more disappointing to see the decision publicly misrepresented and the community misled about how the structure actually works.<\/p>\n
Schollum said the structure was democratically agreed by the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it is concerning to see it now being challenged in a way that does not reflect what was agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson said the new entity would have the power to rate the public directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet governance is being shifted away from fully elected councillors to unelected representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a fundamental change and the community was not clearly told during consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson said he was elected to stand up for ratepayers and to hold the council to account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI make no apology for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said people deserved to know who was making decisions over their money.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny entity with the power to rate must be governed by those accountable to the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means elected councillors. We do not need another layer of governance or consultants.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the real risk was \u201clocking ratepayers into a model of co-governance they never agreed to\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA judicial review is not taken lightly, but ensuring the process is lawful and transparent is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new entity \u2013 in the structure of a council-controlled organisation (CCO) \u2013 is currently scheduled to take control of water services on July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
The budget to establish it is $14.2 million.<\/p>\n
Hastings, as the administering council, will borrow the money from the Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) as bridging funds until the water entity can borrow from the LGFA, with the debt guaranteed by the shareholder councils.<\/p>\n
Gibson\u2019s actions as a councillor have been under the spotlight since his election last year.<\/p>\n
In February, an independent assessment found he breached the council\u2019s code of conduct and engaged in low-level bullying towards a staff member at the city\u2019s art gallery.<\/p>\n
In January, Gibson chose not to attend a strategic planning session held on a marae because he felt uncomfortable about the process, the late notice and the nature of the agenda.<\/p>\n
He said he didn\u2019t \u201cappreciate listening to extended addresses delivered in te reo without translation\u201d, particularly when the majority of councillors were not fluent.<\/p>\n
Councillors\u2019 reaction<\/p>\n
Henare O\u2019Keefe said while he respected Gibson\u2019s right to raise concerns, he didn\u2019t believe legal threats helped.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community expects us to work together, not against each other, particularly on something as important and vital as water services governance,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said.<\/p>\n
Nick Ratcliffe said democratic processes had been followed \u201cto a tee\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy anyone would object is beyond me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elisha Milmine said the council was seeking legal advice and it would be inappropriate to comment until that process was complete.<\/p>\n
Yvonne Lorkin said she was unaware of any legal threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I had been, it wouldn\u2019t have been a priority because over the past week, a group of councillors and I were focusing on Cyclone Vaianu.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she wouldn\u2019t comment further as \u201cI have actual council work to do\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kevin Watkins had \u201cno comment at this stage\u201d.<\/p>\n
Simon Nixon said he hadn\u2019t digested the legal challenge yet, but had reservations about the proposed water services organisation since it was first mooted. He felt Three Waters should have been kept in house with Hastings District Council.<\/p>\n
He said he had voted against it on every occasion he could.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concerns are mostly regarding the costs to ratepayers,\u201d Nixon said.<\/p>\n
Deputy Mayor Michael Fowler and councillors Alwyn Corban, Siiam Daniel, Kellie Jessup, Hana Montaperto-Hendry, Derek Nowell-Usticke, Callum Ross and Heather Te Au-Skipworth did not respond.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He claimed ratepayers had not been told the final structure of the water entity\u2019s \u201cboard\u201d would comprise three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[432,74,17623,682,5205,38290,45212,23943,13573,17465,5194,6712,11556,10934,111,43,139,69,1523,2170,16948,312,56604,1321,6180,5132,1324,23934,12419,18931,5905,376,56603,189903,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-382609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-action","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-appointed","11":"tag-being","12":"tag-council","13":"tag-councillor","14":"tag-disappointed","15":"tag-entity","16":"tag-forum","17":"tag-gibson","18":"tag-hastings","19":"tag-legal","20":"tag-losing","21":"tag-mayor","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-over","27":"tag-plan","28":"tag-representative","29":"tag-says","30":"tag-schollum","31":"tag-services","32":"tag-shes","33":"tag-steve","34":"tag-stop","35":"tag-tangata","36":"tag-threatening","37":"tag-threatens","38":"tag-vote","39":"tag-water","40":"tag-wendy","41":"tag-whenua","42":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}