Waimairi To Have New Committee Chairmen

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30892, 27 October 1965, Page 20

Waimairi To Have New Committee Chairmen

The Waimairi County Council will have to elect new chairmen for its three main committees when it holds its first post-election meeting tomorrow evening. The three former chairmen, Messrs A. E. Wagner (townplanning), W. T. Rice (finance) and J. W. Green (works and reserves) were defeated at the elections on October 9.

It is likely that the council will re-elect Mr 0. C. Mitchell as chairman.

One of the new councillors, Mr R. C. Neville, could be chairman of the town-plan-ning committee. He is a nonvoting member of the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority, and has considerable experience in this field. The Members’ Contracts Act, which prevents councillors from discussing matters in which they could be held

to be directly or indirectly interested financially, would be a bar to Mr Neville sitting on the council’s finance committee. This committee awards contracts, and Mr Neville is employed by a firm of reading contractors.

In appointing its other committee chairmen, the council may follow seniority, with Cr. R. C. Harrow a likely choice for works and reserves, and Cr. W. E. Cassidy a possibility for the finance committee chairmanship. There will be considerable reshuffling of committee membership, as in addition to Mr Neville, Messrs D. B. Rich, M. P. Hobby, F. S. Blogg and J. D. Ashby are new members of the council. Part of Mr Bl ogg’s election policy was that the council should consider having its work done by contract, rather than by the council’s own staff.