West Coast Regional Council: chairperson to be removed

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

The West Coast Regional Council is taking formal steps to remove Allan Birchfield as chairperson.

In a public notice to be published on Wednesday, the chief executive has called an extraordinary meeting for March 28 "to make decisions on the removal" of Birchfield from the chair.

Unlike the mayoralties, the regional council chair's role is internally elected from within the seven-member council.

It's understood a letter requesting the meeting was signed by all six other councillors and was lodged with the chief executive in the first week of March.

Birchfield was caught out by the news.

"I wasn't made aware. Someone probably should have told me that that's what they were going to do... we'll see how it unfolds," he said on Tuesday.

However, he noted there would have to be four signatures for the process to remove him as chairman.

"They will have to go through the formal process."

Birchfield indicated he at this stage had no intention of resigning: "If they want me to go they will have to follow the proper process".

He preferred not to comment on whether he was disappointed.

"I'd be interested to know who the signatures are," he said.

Acting chairperson Peter Haddock declined to comment on whether intended to stand for the role full-time.

However, as the meeting opened he did lodge an apology for Birchfield's ongoing absence.

Mabin said she received a formal request to start the process on March 2.

"I got a formal request so I'm now going through the process... I now have to action it within 14 days. There is a formal motion."

If that was ratified on March 28 then council would make a formal decision on the election of a new chairman, including a protocol for that, before an internal election, Mabin said.

This comes after Birchfield went on leave in December for three months, which both he and Haddock maintained was due to his health.

However, his leave of absence immediately followed a tumultuous period at the council with the relationship between council's business unit VCS and Birchfield's Minerals Ltd again under scrutiny in relation to the sale and consenting of the mothballed Grey Valley gold dredge.

At the same time -- on the day the new council was sworn in after the October local body elections and Birchfield was re-elected as chairman -- Mabin indicated her intention to resign.

His two main opponents from the previous triennium, previous Westland councillors Stuart Challenger and Debra Magner, both lost their seats at the election and the new council -- on paper -- appeared to consolidate Birchfield's strength after a previous effort to roll him was thwarted last year.