Four gold stars for councillor attendance

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

Two Ashburton District councillors have missed a quarter of council meetings in the past year - one who has only been a councillor since May.

Meanwhile, four have maintained perfect attendance.

According to council attendance records there have been 23 meetings between the new council being sworn in on October 27 last year, and its last meeting on October 31.

Councillors Carolyn Cameron, Russell Ellis, Richard Wilson, and Lynette Lovett have 100% attendance records to date this term.

Councillor Leen Braam missed the first four meetings of the term following the election as he was overseas visiting family in the Netherlands.

He then missed two other meetings since to have a 75% attendance rate.

Braam said that other absences have been down to suffering from long Covid.

“It’s made it a bit harder for me and I’m still getting out of it”.

Councillor Rob Mackle was only elected in May this year and has a 64% attendance rate.

He won the Western Ward by-election following Rodger Letham’s death in December and was sworn in at the May 17 meeting.

Mackle has missed four of 11 meetings, which he said was for “various reasons”.

Ashburton mayor Neil Brown has missed three meetings, an 84% attendance rate.

Deputy mayor Liz McMillan and first-term councillors Phil Hooper and Tony Todd have missed one meeting each.

An apology was recorded for all of the councillors' absences.

Under the council’s standing orders, the mayor, or acting chair, must invite apologies at the start of each meeting, including apologies for lateness or early departure.

The meeting can accept or decline any apologies.

The acceptance of a member’s apology constitutes a grant of ‘leave of absence’ for the meeting.

Members may be recorded as absent on council business if their absence is for that reason.