Mayor does U-turn on party funding

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt has backed down from holding a ratepayer-funded party for embattled council staff, just hours after sending out the invitations.

The party will still go ahead on Monday but corporate sponsors will pay the booze and food bills.

Mr Shadbolt yesterday invited news media to a "Celebration of Southland's success and healing the wounds party" on Monday night at the Civic Theatre.

He said the party, with guests including himself, council staff and councillors, was to be jointly funded from his mayoral budget and the democracy budget. It was intended to celebrate the success of the region and clear the air following spats between himself and various people at the council in recent times.

The spats stemmed from his desire to bring down the Government after it announced funding cuts to the Southern Institute of Technology, he said.

Councillor Thelma Buck, outraged that ratepayers were being asked to fund the party, contacted The Southland Times and said she probably would not be going.

"I am not interested in ratepayers' money going on parties. The ratepayers get sucked into paying for everything. They have been paying for far too long and it's time someone said enough was enough." The Southland Times left a message with council chief executive Richard King asking how much the party was costing.

However, Mr Shadbolt rang back soon after to say he had been in contact with his Friends of SIT corporate sponsors and they had agreed to pay for the party.

"They like the concept that we need to get back together again. We need to have bonding, we need to celebrate rather than attack each other, and they are prepared to contribute, so that's great news." Mr Shadbolt said a party might help to clear the air at council headquarters.

"We had a huge domestic over my tactics (to bring down the Government)," he said.

He could understand where his councillors were coming from as many were "politically green" when it came to tough political warfare and would "drop their rifles and run after the first shot," Mr Shadbolt said.

"They just thought it was completely the wrong tactic for a tiny little city like Invercargill to say 'we are going to bring down the Government'.

Cr Buck said she preferred no party to be held.

"I would rather we went and bought ourselves a cup of coffee and sat down and sorted this mess out."

- © Fairfax NZ News