In the minutes before the confirming Tuesday Council meeting Cr. Simms, who was front page ODT reported as refusing to accept his deputy position on Saturday, managed somehow to get his deputy ‘role’ changed to Co-Chair with Mayor Barker.

Today’s ODT front page Chairs story relegates my sidelining by Mayor Barker to page 3 as follows:

My comment to the ODT usual DCC reporter Grant Miller after the Council meeting was as follows:

For the record, Mayor Barker led me to believe that I would maintain my previous Chair of Finance role and sent me the revised Christchurch City Council model for Chair of Finance to see if I approved of it, which I did.

Mayor Barker has now given the Chair of Finance to already overloaded Deputy Mayor Lucas who also got Chair of the Hearings Committee making a mockery of Mayor Barker’s claim to distribute workload evenly and allow experienced Councillors to lead the way for newer Councillors. 

By only offering me empty deputy roles, Mayor Barker has prevented any Chair or Portfolio Lead leadership from me and sidelined me as she attempted to do with Cr. Simms who was just this morning able to negotiate a compromised Co-chair with Mayor Barker for Economic Development. 

I had also asked Mayor Barker to consider me for the Chair of the Heritage Fund which I had successfully conducted for several years in the past, but Mayor Barker has taken that role for herself, claiming to do this temporarily for continuity.

I had approved of Mayor Barker’s intention to pay Councillors equally which has also not happened.

My loss of remuneration resulting from being sidelined by Mayor Barker means I am the only Councillor earning the basic $84,000 minimum, and all other Councillors have benefited from my loss by having their annual salary pushed over $100,000.

Kind regards,

Cr. Lee Vandervis