Governance losses in polytech cuts

The Otago Polytechnic council will have to cope with a wholesale loss of institutional knowledge and governance experience after the announcement yesterday three of its previous four ministerial appointees have been dumped.

Previous chairman Graham Crombie, deputy chairman Mark Ryan and board member David Salter are casualities of the Government's decision to dissolve all 20 polytechnic councils, downsize council membership to eight and review the four new ministerial appointees to each.

Of the 78 appointees confirmed yesterday by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce, 33 are previous council members and 45 are new.

Two appointments have still to be made.

Otago is not the only institution reeling from major changes.

Ten councils have retained either none or one of their previous ministerial appointees.

Each board can elect another four people, but there is no guarantee any of them will be previous board members.

A worst-case scenario for Otago would see Susie Johnstone being the only member of the previously 15-strong council retaining a place on the new board.

Council member Malcolm Macpherson, who has put his hand up for a place on the new council, said yesterday some would see the dumping of Messrs Crombie, Ryan and Salter as retribution for the previous board's clashing with the Tertiary Education Commission over governance and financial issues.

Last year, the Government withdrew the offer of a $12.5 million loan for a new building when the polytechnic council would not accept what it said was an "unacceptable tag" that it agree to the appointment of a Crown manager to oversee its financial transactions.

Mr Macpherson said he suspected there was "a bit of the Wellington institutional view that the board were bad boys" in the decision to dump the three men.

"We strongly oppose that point of view.

If retribution is part of the decision, that is unfair and unjust."

None of the former appointees could be reached for comment yesterday.

Mr Macpherson said he was "99% certain" at least some other previous board members would be on the new board.

"Polytechnic councils were funny beasts ... and I am in favour of smaller councils.

But a lot of institutional memory will be lost.

We have to be careful that in the restructuring we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater; cause more harm than good."

The new ministerial appointees are Dunedin lawyer Kathy Grant, a member of the University of Otago Council and a previous chairwoman of the Dunedin College of Education council, Presbyterian Support Otago chief executive Gillian Bremner and Otago chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie.

All said they were looking forward to their roles.

They said they had no links with the National Party or any political party and did not consider themselves to be political appointees.

Ms Grant said going in as chairwoman would be "challenging" and she would be relying on Mrs Johnstone's experience to help her.

Three of Telford's four previous ministerial appointees have retained their positions, including chairman David Yardley.

The new appointee is Tony Hall, who is a member of several tertiary and educational boards, including the Lincoln University council.

Lincoln and Telford have begun merger talks, but Mr Yardley said yesterday he did not think that was why Mr Hall had been appointed.

Because of their shared focus in rural education, a member of Lincoln's council had been on the Telford council for many years, until about about two years ago.

Mr Yardley said he was happy Telford had continuity between the previous and new councils.

"But because we slimmed down from 13 members to eight, it is inevitable some good people would go."