The Invercargill City Council held back-to-back council, Infrastructural Services and Performance, Policy and Partnership (PPP) meetings on Tuesday, finishing off all of the council's meetings for the year.

Agenda topics included the role of the deputy mayor, an ongoing legal action against the council by mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt, and delayed annual meeting and report information from Invercargill City Holdings.

An independent governance review report noted the appointment of two external appointees to assist the council from January 1, and the creation of a document to clarify the role of the deputy mayor. 

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The document could be in the form of a role description, or a memorandum of understanding signed by the mayor and the deputy mayor and then adopted by the council.

A further report on the deputy mayor's role will be brought to the council in February 2021.

The council also noted Invercargill City Holdings Limited will provide an update to the council in January about its delayed annual general meeting, including discussion of its 2020 annual report. Delays are attributed to the impact of Covid-19.

The Infrastructure and PPP committees rubberstamped seven reports to do with the Long-Term Plan.

There was little discussion from councillors on the reports.

The aim was mostly to provide a draft update to councillors, so various items can be ready to go out for public consultation in the new year, before later adoption into the Long-Term Plan (LTP).

Among items getting the green light were the draft revenue and financing policy, long-term plan draft levels of service, key performance indicators and targets and long-term plan (2021 – 2031) activity plans and reports. 

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Following the public sessions, the meetings went into public excluded where topics such as mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt’s ongoing legal action against the ICC were discussed.

Sir Tim's request to add his legal action into a committee agenda as a major late item on Tuesday was accepted by the other councillors.

Mayor Shadbolt is suing the council for expenses incurred from his successful defence of a defamation claim by former councillor Karen Arnold in 2018.

A High Court registrar recently advised the Southland App that a case management telephone conference between the parties' lawyers and Associate Judge Lester was scheduled for this week (December 17).

The registrar said there had been some discussions about a hearing date in mid-2021 but no firm dates had been set down.