After taking the mayoralty in October’s election, Sophie Barker departed from previous governance systems and established a portfolio-based model intended for councillors to "champion" key issues.
Two vocal councillors told Ms Barker the "confused" system appeared to suppress dissenting views and afforded an "unprecedented" number of roles to herself and deputy mayor Cherry Lucas.
Emails show the mayor’s approach was seen as exclusive, a disservice to ratepayers and a discredit to the abilities of those at the council table.
Asked by the ODT if the correspondence showed the governance shake-up was messier than necessary, Ms Barker disagreed.
Her new approach did win praise from several councillors — one promised to back her "to the hilt" over the refresh.
"With any appointments process there will always be people who feel they personally deserve certain roles and would have done things differently," Ms Barker said.
"However, it was my judgement call as mayor as to how I wished to appoint portfolio leads and deputies — not all requests could be accommodated."
Ms Barker informed councillors of her proposed structure in early November — creating portfolios across seven subject areas, each with a lead and deputy.
The new structure would "elevate" governance.
Cr Andrew Simms publicly rejected deputy lead of economic development, describing it as an attempt by Ms Barker to "sideline" him and further her own political interests, which she denied.
He justified his decision in an email to all councillors on November 9.
Given the "parlous" state of economic development in Dunedin, leading the portfolio was a full-time job and Ms Barker’s decision to front it contributed to a "frankly ridiculous" imbalance in their workloads, Cr Simms said.
It also gave "no credit to my abilities or experience, and does a disservice to the ratepayers of Dunedin".
"This is not teamwork and it is not inclusive."
Days later, he agreed to joint leadership of the portfolio with Ms Barker.
Credit for the compromise belonged with the mayor, he said.
An "unprecedented" number of roles were kept for Ms Barker and Cr Lucas — Cr Lund, appointed as deputy of the heritage portfolio, wondered if this was the best use of skills and experience at the council table.
"The recent election shows that voters were impatient for change and the skills and experience of high-polling new councillors such as Andrew and myself are not well utilised," he said.
"There has been no adequate explanation given. The headline about elevating governance is inaccurate. It seems to be suppressing any influence for new councillors that are not left or very left-leaning."
Cr Lund said "a number of us" were concerned by the situation and, in the interests of starting the council term positively, Ms Barker should "take these concerns seriously and address these matters point by point".
Cr Lee Vandervis publicly declined two deputy appointments, describing such roles as "non-functioning sop" and later on social media said Ms Barker’s proposals were the "ugly politics of mayoral exclusion power".
He stood by those comments even as he accepted leadership of a new council-controlled organisations (CCOs) portfolio and elevation to co-chair, with Cr Lucas, of the finance and performance committee in December.
He noted Cr Lucas was the only person he would accept joint leadership with.
However, he said the new portfolio matched his experience and relationships with CCOs and their managers, "giving some hope long-term for CCO performance".
Asked how she felt about the changes made for Crs Simms and Vandervis, Ms Barker said the pair had slotted into their new roles well.
Cr Simms had been great in co-leading the economic development portfolio and, following early discussions with Cr Vandervis, she felt the new portfolio had good potential.
The "vast majority" of councillors were happy with their roles, which considered their experiences, interests and aspirations for council, Ms Barker said.
Correspondence showed late councillor and portfolio lead Jules Radich was pleased to be involved with infrastructure.
"I think you’ve made a nicely matched distribution of tasks to councillors’ areas of interest," he told Ms Barker.
"Well done."
Cr Brent Weatherall told Ms Barker he would "be supporting you to the hilt over the refresh you’re implementing over governance" and Cr John Chambers said the appointments were "good by me!".
Other emails captured by the ODT’s request included Cr Christine Garey’s question to the mayor about how Cr Vandervis’ new positions would "impact my salary".
Cr Vandervis had been set to lose some of his pay when he declined roles, and the money would have been redistributed among other councillors, but the resolution put paid to that. All elected members, barring Ms Barker and Cr Lucas, returned to equal salaries.
Ms Barker said, given the opportunity, she would not have been as rushed by the deadline set by the Remuneration Authority.
Other mayors had taken longer to set up their committee and portfolio structures and, as a new mayor, she could have taken longer to "front-think" the systems and processes.
It was too early to say how the system was performing, she said.
Portfolio meetings began this month, and she was impressed by councillors’ enthusiasm and dedication so far, Ms Barker said.
"I will do my best to take feedback and make the system work — it’s also up to councillors to make their portfolios work too."
Following Mr Radich’s death last month the infrastructure portfolio is being managed by deputy Cr Weatherall.
Cr Benedict Ong was deputy for the technology portfolio but lost that responsibility last week over behavioural issues.
Ms Barker said she would reconsider roles and portfolios after May’s by-election.
