Lee Vandervis. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH Warnings issued about the length of the Dunedin City Council’s meeting agenda proved correct: the council was unable to get through all of it. Items shelved until next month included reducing the Taieri Mouth Rd speed limit, confirming Cr Jo Galer’s leadership of the heritage portfolio alongside Cr Russell Lund and Cr Benedict Ong’s notice of motion urging the government to reconsider scrapping a scheme that reimburses students for final-year fees. There was also no time at Thursday’s meeting to consider the latest update on the council’s finances. Priority needed to be given to items that had to progress because of legislative requirements, council chief executive Sandy Graham told councillors. This included adopting the council’s 2026-27 annual plan and striking the rates. Cr Lee Vandervis had been critical before the meeting of what he said was a 973-page agenda ‘‘so large that due consideration of many decisions will not be possible for many councillors’’. That included 264 pages about long-term options for reducing flood risk in South Dunedin — Cr Vandervis argued it would be unacceptable for debate of this matter to go ahead on Thursday. It was not urgent and the agenda was ‘‘over-full’’, he said. This was put to the test at the meeting when Cr Vandervis called for the South Dunedin discussion to be put aside for a later date, but the council voted 10-5 to press on. The meeting started at 8.30am and Ms Graham told councillors after the lunch break the agenda needed to be reordered, with their leave, to ensure the most pressing items were dealt with. It was signalled at this point getting through the full agenda might still be possible, ‘‘but that will be entirely in your hands’’, Ms Graham said. Cr Vandervis disputed this assertion and expressed regret he was not able to do justice to some items because he had not had time to give them due consideration, he said. ‘‘[The agenda] was far in excess of anything that we could be reasonably expected to have a really good look through. ‘‘I have made some arrangements with some of the other councillors to look at parts of the agenda that I wouldn’t get time to and that I would look at other parts that they wouldn’t get time to in order to try and accommodate this.’’ Ms Graham said the South Dunedin paper was circulated separately well in advance of agreed timeframes. ‘‘Yes, it’s a big agenda, but this is a big organisation and I cannot guarantee that you won’t be faced with agendas of this size again.’’ Cr Vandervis said he could not cope with the volume of material for Thursday’s meeting, prompting Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker to ask: ‘‘were there any other councillors who felt unable to cope?’’ None said so. Matters covered through the day included a review of South Dunedin natural hazards, an update on reshaping local government in Otago, an animals bylaw review, a water supply bylaw, statements of intent for council companies, interim arrangements for regional spatial planning and road closures for proposed events. Ms Graham said the statements of intent were also circulated in advance to enable councillors to stagger their reading. About eight hours and 15 minutes after the meeting had started, Ms Barker reminded councillors they had a minimum of six items to go. The four that were in the public part of the agenda were dealt with over about 30 minutes. The council went behind closed doors to discuss non-public items, which included development contributions.
