Long first meeting for new council

Press, 20 December 1989, Page 7

Long first meeting for new council

By

KAY FORRESTER

The new Christchurch City Council’s first full meeting ran for more than seven hours on Monday evening. That was much longer than the six hours or deadline of 10.30 p.m. given in the council’s standing orders. However, councillors opted at 10.30 p.m. to continue with the meeting. The thornier issues on the

council agenda, of Maori advisory committees and the cityimage campaign were not raised until after 11 p.m. At least two councillors queried the wisdom of continuing so late. Cr Des King said, “When its gets this late people make rushed decisions. They make stupid decisions.” The Mayor, Ms Vicki Buck, said yesterday councillors had not rushed decisions. She had

given all councillors the opportunity to speak about all items. “I think this was a one-off situation with three months since the last council meeting and lots of things to get through. Next time a lot of things that came through council committees will go direct to community boards,” she said. It was difficult to tell how long

council meetings in the future would last, she said. “This council has no history to judge by. We’ll just have to see how it works out. I certainly hope it won’t be seven hours every time.” If council meetings regularly lasted that long, the council would look at how best to deal with the amount of work it had to get through, she said.