Councillor defends track record

The Palmerston North city councillor with the worst meeting attendance rate in the last financial year says his attendance record is normally good, but his personal and career circumstances changed.

Vaughan Dennison attended 52 of 80 meetings (65 per cent) where he was a member and four extra meetings. In previous years, his meeting attendance had been above 90 per cent.

Mr Dennison said his mother died from cancer in March and family time had become important. He also changed his employment last year, moving from general manager of accommodation provider At The Hub to manage YMCA Palmerston North. The move made it harder to get to all-day workshops, he said.

The Manawatu Standard yesterday published attendance records, which highlighted Mr Dennison's low turn-up rate.

Mr Dennison said attendance at community functions was not included in the data and he believed he was still effective as a councillor.

Some councillors with strong attendance records did not achieve much, he said.

However, Peter Wheeler, who had the second-highest attendance rate at 94.6 per cent, disagreed.

"A great deal should be read into it," he said. "It's a clear indicator to me of the work you put in. Every councillor receives a salary of near enough to $35,000. In reality, that's what you should work to earn."

He believed there was a pattern to the attendance statistics.

"The longer a person stays on council, it would appear the less effort they start to put in," Mr Wheeler said.

Chris Teo-Sherrell, who went to all the 78 meetings he was meant to attend, said attendance was indeed an indicator of commitment and "I would suggest also of performance".

Mayor Jono Naylor, who went to 85 of 90 meetings (94.4 per cent), said that meeting attendance was just one part of a councillor's job.

- © Fairfax NZ News