The Otago Regional Council settled on one rule for me, another for thee when deciding on its Red traffic light setting meeting rules yesterday.
Councillors voted to continue to hold meetings without a limit on the number of vaccinated councillors who could attend in person, amending one of the proposed options that would have capped in-person attendance at six councillors.
They could still attend meetings virtually if they chose.
Meanwhile, council staff will continue to adhere to the organisation’s policy of having no more than 50% of employees working on site.
The amended decision, which passed by a narrow margin of 6-5, came despite a warning from chief executive Sarah Gardner that it could open her up to liability in the future.
"If we end up in a situation where there is a health and safety claim against me, then I would be coming to you.
"So I would need your support in that situation because of the decision you made."
Chairman Andrew Noone asked if the amendment increased her concerns, which she answered in the affirmative.
"I think that they put me in a very difficult position."
Cr Hilary Calvert moved the hybrid in-person/virtual option, but amended it to strip out the requirement that a maximum of six councillors attend in person.
Cr Kate Wilson said that under the Red setting, businesses and schools remained open, and the council had a leadership role to show things had changed compared with previous lockdowns.
"I totally respect anyone not wishing to join a council meeting for 110 reasons that they may have, but I don’t think we should mandate that it shouldn’t happen."
Cr Bryan Scott indicated he would have moved the option to hold meetings entirely online had he spoken before Cr Calvert, and said doing so would allow the council to best handle the Omicron peak when it arrived.
"If we do the Zoom thing for a period of time, we will be resilient and come out of it in a few months time being able to do our business and meet more effectively."
Cr Alexa Forbes also spoke against the hybrid option and said moving meetings entirely online was clean, simple and made sense in the Red setting.
She said the problem of councillors in some locations having unreliable internet connections had been addressed in staff recommendations, and those affected would be able to dial in to meetings from ORC meeting rooms individually.
Crs Calvert, Wilson, Noone, Carmen Hope, Gary Kelliher and Michael Laws voted for the hybrid option, Crs Scott, Forbes, Michael Deaker, Kevin Malcolm and Gretchen Robertson voting against.
