Dunedin city councillor Kate Wilson has resigned her position as a director of the Taieri Gorge Railway Trust, saying she felt sidetracked by wearing "two hats".
"In order to do your duty as a councillor, it's about being able to talk openly and frankly and it just became too difficult," she said last night.
"I actually offered to resign to [Mayor] Dave [Cull] early in this triennium. But, by early in July, it was becoming increasingly clear the CCO [council-controlled organisations] issue was very important to council.
"I had to choose whether I was able to do my best for the ratepayers and be able to vote on these issues, or withdraw.
"This issue to me is too important to the ratepayers for me not to express a view.
"It is the nature of collegial relationships that I also thought it important to ensure my fellow councillors were free to act with no regard to personality issues," she said.
"At times we wear two hats, and you wish you were wearing one hat, but you do the best you can.
"For example, when Taieri Gorge looked at a steam festival, I really, really supported it. But, at the council table, I couldn't support the funding."
Cr Wilson said a recommendation by independent reviewer Warren Larsen that councillors did not hold director positions in Dunedin City Holdings Ltd or subsidiary companies was "the third factor" in her decision.
'It's not a judgement call on other councillors who do that. It's just the choice of a person to decide what's best for them," she said.
"I will miss being a director and you would have to ask someone else about the advantages of having a director who also lives in Middlemarch. If they replace me, and who with, will be something that will be looked at after the [Larsen Report] review."
