Crs Jim O’Malley and Sophie Barker yesterday said they would refuse to consider any additional funding requests from submitters to Dunedin City Council’s 10-year plan.
However, other councillors were concerned the refusal would be unfair on submitters who were encouraged to provide feedback.
Cr Barker said she would not be supporting additional funding for any items outside the consultation document and was "philosophically opposed to this lolly scramble of a process".
There was a lack of understanding from submitters about the long-term plan process and how long it took to properly assess projects, then complete them, Cr Barker said.
She was concerned about the projected 9.8% rates increase for next year and would rather reduce this amount than fund extra projects.
Cr O’Malley said he also had concerns about the process and would be "voting no across the board" to any additional funding.
He said it would be more appropriate for funding requests to be assessed by staff who would then report back to the council before future budgeting processes.
"We need to educate our community in that if you really want something, it will not come six weeks after you’ve asked for it.
"It can’t, because we can’t really afford to operate our budgets [like that]."
Cr Carmen Houlahan said the refusal to consider requests was a "slap in the face to the people who engaged with us".
She said she shared Cr Barker’s concerns about the scope of possible rates rises and had voted against items earlier in the week on that basis.
However, she was worried uniformly voting against funding would have a negative effect on future
public consultations.
"A lot of these submissions are from small groups or individuals and they’re people in our community that are ... really hurting and I’d like them to think that they’ve been heard."
Cr Steve Walker said it would be a dereliction of duty to ignore the efforts of those who made submissions to the plan.
Mayor Aaron Hawkins said it was not practical to carry extra funding requests across to the next long-term plan deliberations.
The disagreement came as councillors considered whether to add $40,000 to the city services grants budget next year, and adjust the funding pool for inflation in subsequent years.
Councillors voted in favour of the extra $40,000 funding 12-3, Cr Lee Vandervis joining Crs Barker and O’Malley in voting against.
Deliberations will continue today.
- By Andrew Marshall
