This morning the Dom Post reported that Mayor elect Celia Wade-Brown had not contacted a substantial number of councillors, despite having plenty of time to cycle round Civic Square on her push bike.
“Incoming Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown could face an uphill battle to achieve her goal of a more inclusive council, with a group of dissenting councillors questioning her commitment a day after she was elected.
Six city councillors voiced concerns yesterday that she had not contacted them to discuss key appointments in her new administration.”
This has been a big story for that Tory bastion of respectable journalism. It has over 57 comments and counting.
Scoop took the other angle, and called them “six foolish rebels”. That’s going too far, but I have heard that some were genuinely surprised at not being contacted.
“Six Wellington city councilors made a foolish political mistake yesterday when they allowed their names to be used in a report complaining that the new mayor hadn’t yet spoken to them about the makeup of the new council.
What were they expecting? The election result was announced on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, the mayor-elect was at a training day for new mayors. Did they want her to ignore the training (provided by Local Government New Zealand) and spend the day on her cellphone?
Ray Ahipene-Mercer is ringleader of a group who the DomPost would have us believe is made up of instant rebels.”
Whatever the truth, she needs to get all the councillors on speed dial and stay in touch on a daily basis. Text if needs be. It looks like another high maintenance bunch of councillors.
For the record, the “magnificent six” are Jo Coughlan, Paul Eagle, Leonie Gill, Ian McKinnon, Ray Ahipene-Mercer, and John Morrison. John was known as a ‘mystery’ himself.
WCC Watch 
Firstly I don’t think that C.W-B has been given much chance to have these discussions. Secondly the comments from the councilors in question come across more like a group who can’t wait to get their noses into the trough of money that comes from portfolios and directorships of CCO’s which tops up their pay-packets.
Correct – when they fall off one tit they need to latch onto another – pronto
My heart bleeds for them!
I’m not sure if I would call them a ‘group’ – maybe Ray should have taken his concerns to the Mayor rather than the press – hope it passes and all councillors can just get on with work.
The councillors made themselves look whiny and uncooperative. Not a good look.
Kia ora! Like most of you, I was disappointed with the article which was inaccurate and misleading. I did not meet with any of the 5 councillors on Thursday 14 October. I am not part of any group of dissenting councillors questioning Celia and her commitment to be inclusive Mayor. Celia and I have briefly met and discussed some of my aspirations for the ward. I also rang the reporter and provided the above facts for his information too. I asked that for the future, he checks with me before relying on a spokesperson. Putting communities first is my number one priority for the people of Wellington south. With that comes my support for Celia and her vision for an inclusive council. Regards, Paul (mobile 021 673 630).
Its that fantasy writer Burgess from the dom post – last week he was persecuting Goulden, this week Eagle – he obviously has a problem with people in the eastern suburbs!
Burgess certainly should have contacted Eagle and others. From what Paul says (congrats btw Paul – excellent campaign) and the Dompost article either Ray A-M was misquoted or presented his concerns in shall we say a concerning way.
As for Goulden, Burgess contacted him and his only error was saying it was the attendance stats that set him off on the abuse and sockpuppeting.
Richard I sent this to Cr. Mercer – let’s see what he says in reply – if he replies!
Mr Mercer
Is there any other councillors, apart from Mr Eagle, who were not at the meeting on Thursday of the “gang of six”?
Will be interesting to see if there’s a reply.