Second deputy mayor offer for Prentice
BY EVAN HARDING
Relevant offers
Suzanne Prentice was approached again, only three months ago, to be Tim Shadbolt's deputy mayor.
But Mr Shadbolt yesterday denied any involvement in the second attempted courtship.
The Southland Times revealed this week that Mr Shadbolt offered Ms Prentice the deputy mayoralty position on December 15 in a phone message. She declined the offer and later decided to stand against Mr Shadbolt for the mayoralty.
Invercargill businessman Louis Crimp yesterday said he had also approached Ms Prentice to be Mr Shadbolt's deputy mayor three months ago. He had done so without Mr Shadbolt's permission, saying he thought it would be a good way to get rid of deputy mayor Neil Boniface.
"I rang her up one day and said if you stand for the council Tim Shadbolt will appoint you as deputy mayor. She said she would think about it. That's the last I heard of her."
Mr Crimp said he did not think Ms Prentice had a show of beating Mr Shadbolt in the mayoralty race.
"I don't think she's got the acumen to run the city and negotiate with people like me and other narky bits of goods."
Ms Prentice, who has kept a phone recording of when Mr Shadbolt offered her the deputy mayoralty nine months ago, said yesterday she had had no intention of raising Mr Crimp's offer of the deputy mayoralty.
But she acknowledged she had kept notes of the conversation with Mr Crimp.
Mr Crimp had rung her on her landline on June 11 between 1.15pm and 1.25pm, she said.
Referring to her notes, she said Mr Crimp told her he had been talking with Mr Shadbolt the night before and they had decided to ask her to stand for the council as well as the mayoralty, and Mr Shadbolt would guarantee to make her his deputy. When asked about Mr Crimp not believing she had the acumen to be the mayor, she said she had only met Mr Crimp once in person about seven years ago.
"I don't know Louis Crimp, and obviously he doesn't know me."
Mr Shadbolt yesterday said he had definitely never asked Mr Crimp to approach Ms Prentice about being his deputy mayor.
"He didn't tell me until after he did it ... and I said I had already tried that.
"At no time did I ask him to be my negotiator."
Mr Crimp, who he knew well, was his own man and no one could control him.Mr Boniface told The Southland Times in December, six days before Mr Shadbolt asked Ms Prentice to be his deputy, that he would not be seeking another term as deputy if Mr Shadbolt was re-elected this year.
Cr Boniface made the announcement soon after he had a major falling out with Mr Shadbolt.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Governance covers "duty of care",the best management covers every possible scenario possible for any out come,that has not been done so far.Time for change for the better. Apart from that, I record all incoming calls from my "secret" agents but I dont tell anyone that so dont tell anyone....ok.
And the outrageous thing is that Suzanne has absolutely no credibility to take on the Deputy's job let alone the Mayoralty! Funny (Face)!
I keep a record of any "shonky" phone calls as well so does that make me Superwoman? What a pity that it isn't for public knowledge as to whom leaked the information originally. It certainly was not someone from the Prentice camp so are we to assume that this was a brilliant exercise to make Shadbolt appear to be the squeaky clean victim and Suzanne the villain? I don't have any objections to having a female Mayor and I consider Invercargill to be "our" city not the singular "my" as quoted. Perhaps I should also join the SAS or should it have read SIS?
Keeping notes of phone conversations? Who does that? Does she have a huge file with notes on all conversations she's ever had with local businessmen and councillors? No wonder she has such a big house. Maybe Super Suz should join the SAS instead. Very odd behaviour, I definately don't want her running my city!
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@Ludbuck: Who do you want running your city? Someone who subverts democratic process.
"He said there was a "little bit of opportunism" in his offer because it would have given added strength to the democratic side of the council, with Invercargill having a high-profile mayor and a high-profile deputy mayor."
Then we have a Tim supporter who continues to do this.
If I had two people make offers to me that they had no legal authority to, and where that offer goes against the foundation of the way you live, wouldn't you take notes?
And again, this information did not come from Prentice. So you have to ask who is trying to discredit whom? Who is trying to get mileage out of it?
If you think so much of Tim, then surely you respect his opinions. His opinion, as stated in the original article, was that he thought Suzanne was the best person for the deputy mayoralty. So either you don't respect his opinions after all, or you think he was lying. What's it to be?
The only remaining question here is this: If Tim and Crimp think she has no show of beating Tim for the mayoralty, why the offer? What do they hope to gain from it.