The gloves came off in Dunedin politics yesterday, as some councillors turned on Mayor Dave Cull, accusing him of pandering to one of his Greater Dunedin councillors during a fiery council meeting.
Cr John Bezett said Mr Cull "rushed over" an agenda item on climate change to make sure a previous decision on the issue, backed by Greater Dunedin councillor Jinty MacTavish, stayed in the council's annual plan.
"He allowed Cr MacTavish to influence his view," Cr Bezett said. "I think, quite frankly, he let himself down badly."
Mr Cull responded last night, denying his Greater Dunedin team voted as a block, and challenged his opponents to spend time checking who voted for what, rather than making accusations.
The issue developed yesterday, as the council worked through the decisions they had made during annual plan meetings in May.
All were open for discussion, but Cr Bezett and his colleagues missed their chance to speak out when the issue came up.
In May, the council voted seven-five to bring forward its work to respond to climate change. The council had planned to spend the next three years investigating how best to respond to the threats posed by climate change, work that would include a major study on the future of South Dunedin and four other city "hot spots".
The change, brought about in part by passionate lobbying by Cr Jinty MacTavish, meant the work would be done quicker, but at a greater cost, a move unpopular with some councillors.
Cr Bezett admitted yesterday he missed the moment, but brought the matter up later, and gave Mr Cull the chance to have it reconsidered. He told the meeting because Cr Colin Weatherall, Neil Collins and Fliss Butcher were not involved in the May meeting, they should be allowed that chance yesterday.
Cr MacTavish responded she was not comfortable with the idea, as the revised budgets councillors had to consider at the time were not available at yesterday's meeting.
Mr Cull agreed with that, and ruled he would not reopen the debate.
That clearly infuriated councillors, with calls of "wrong" and "unfair" from Crs Butcher and Bill Acklin.
"I think that's really unfortunate," Cr Bezett told Mr Cull. "I think what you've done is most unfair.""I've reached my conclusion," Mr Cull responded. "I have made my ruling. I won't be told my ruling is wrong. It's out of order."
Last night, Cr Acklin said Mr Cull knew if the vote were to be held again it would have gone 8-6 against bringing the work forward.
The three councillors had access to the information, and had been denied the right to have their say. Cr Butcher accepted she had not been at the earlier meeting and said she was not complaining about that.
But Mr Cull was descending into party politics, with his actions "a way of keeping Jinty on side".
All three councillors said they objected to consultants being paid to do the work more quickly.
Mr Cull said he expected councillors to keep up with proceedings.
