About-face on position of heritage adviser

Melanie Tavendale
Melanie Tavendale
The Waitaki District Council has reversed a March decision and will add the role of "heritage adviser" to its ranks next year.

Before consulting on its draft  2018-28 long-term plan, the council scrapped the proposed new role from next year’s budget, Cr Jim Hopkins argued successfully for the position to be "deferred for further consideration".

During submissions to the plan, the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust lobbied for the role to be included in 2018-19 budgets and during discussion on the council’s long-term plan, council officers recommended a three-year fixed-term role be implemented next year.

However, Deputy Mayor Melanie Tavendale pushed further than the recommendation and argued the role should be advertised as a permanent position. The benefit to the district "really depends on the quality of person" who filled the role, the council needed to send a signal the position was an important one, and to limit the pool of applicants by creating only a fixed-term position would be a "real shame".

"I would like us to show some faith in this position," Cr Tavendale said.

"We are a heritage town."

To "flag a concern", Cr Hopkins said he could not point to a report or other publicly available evidence that the "best solution" to the town’s heritage issues was to appoint "another council employee".

"One more council staff member may not be the best way to achieve council goals," he said.

Recently, the number of staff in the council’s Thames St headquarters have created cramped conditions and required 17 of the council’s 122 staff to be shifted from the building and into office space commercially leased about 150m away.

Cr Hugh Perkins argued a heritage adviser role "falls into the nice-to-have category" , but only Crs Perkins and Guy Percival voted against reinstating the  position. In a subsequent vote whether to establish a three-year fixed term role or a permanent position, the council was divided.

The decision to create a permanent position went ahead 5-4. Cr Jan Wheeler defended the three-year fixed-term proposal, arguing the quality of applicants interested in the position would remain high because there were "a lot of people wanting to come to this district and make their mark".

In the subsequent vote for a three-year fixed term, or permanent position, Crs Wheeler, Hopkins, Jeremy Holding and Colin Wollstein voted for establishing a fixed-term position while Crs Tavendale, Perkins, Craig Dawson, Peter Garvan, and Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher voted for a permanent position.

Cr Percival abstained on the second vote. Cr Bill Kingan sent apologies.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

Add a Comment