Yesterday’s council meeting lasted a grand total of five minutes. Blink and it felt like you would have missed it. 

It seemed the public and press were being ushered out just as soon as they had come in.

All that was on the agenda was the confirmation of previous meeting’s minutes, then the mayor stated that that there wouldn’t be a mayor’s report, as there usually is for full council meetings. 

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“There is no mayor’s report for this meeting because I’ve been informed that there aren’t enough items to be discussed,” he said.

As part of the council’s Independent governance review report, made public on Monday (November 23), it was found the key issue was a “leadership void,” to which the mayor was held largely responsible. 

Independent evaluator Richard Thomson conducted the review and found that, “Sir Tim struggled to fulfill significant aspects of his role.”

He noted a positive side effect of the change in committee structure this year, from four committees to two (Performance, policy and Partnership and Infrastructural Services committees) was that the mayor would essentially be chairing full council meetings where the agenda primarily consists of the approval of minutes.

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This meant that he would need to chair difficult or complex meeting agendas less often. 

“The mayor saw this as a deliberate diminution of his power, which is accurately was, but in my opinion, this was a side outcome of the change,” Mr Thomson said.

“Many of those I spoke with saw it as a compassionate way to protect the reputation and mana by reducing the opportunity for his difficulties to be apparent to the public.”

Yesterday’s meeting was packed with press. All eyes were on the mayor and councillors to see what would come out of the first full council meeting since the Richard Thomson report was made public. 

It was also the first council meeting since the mayor’s scathing statement in response to the Richard Thomson report, where he rejected all criticism against him saying he’s been used as the ‘scapegoat’ for the council’s leadership failures. 

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However, despite this, the mood in the council chamber seemed pleasant and more or less upbeat, as if all those in the meeting today were on their best behaviour. 

Councillors Nigel Skelt and Darren Ludlow, who are seated near media bench, greeted members of the media with cherry smiles and ‘hellos’, just as they usually do.

On Monday, Cr Ludlow said that the council were wholly committed to moving forward as a team and rectifying the issues raised in the Thomson report. 

The mood in the room felt like that yesterday. 

All elected members and staff conducted themselves in a polite and professional manner – echoing Cr Ludlow’s comment about wanting to move forward as a cohesive unit for the betterment of the city.