The motion was originally brought up at the October 25 meeting but was deferred.

Cr Garry Turland’s motion sought support for councillors to ask Cr Scandrett to step down from the role.

“My view is we need to rejuvenate this committee,” he said.

Cr Gordon Markwart removed himself from the chamber during the debate.

He declared a “slight, non pecuniary” interest as deputy chair of the committee.

Some councillors shared Cr Turland’s concerns the committee was moving in a different direction to the one given to it by council.

Earlier in the meeting, Cr Duncan Gair floated the idea of disbanding the committee.

However the idea was not pursued.

“The chair is supposed to direct how the committee should be going. We’re still waiting for an achievement to be put to this council of any magnitude,” he said. 

“Chasing hollow wishes like a rail trail, that is not the direction that council wants to do.”

Cr Ken Halstead, while not in favour of the motion, did agree the committee needed to be rejuvenated.

In response, Cr Scandrett said the debate reminded him of “feudal England”.

He emphasised it was an advisory committee and said to those looking for significant achievements, there were a number of recommendations council had not endorsed.

“It’s not its role to build things or achieve things. It is an advisory committee,” he said.

“I’m quite happy with how that council committee is going. I think it’s got great prospect going forward.”

Cr Larry Whipper also argued in defence of Cr Scandrett maintaining his role as chair of the committee.

He said more money needed to be invested in tourism if councillors wanted to see big achievements.

“To cut the head off a committee just because we don’t like what they say is totally undemocratic I think,” he said.

The motion passed in a close 4-3 vote.

However Cr Scandrett declined to stand down from the role of economic development and tourism committee chair.

After the meeting, Cr Scandrett said he decided not to stand down as “appointments to all committees are made by a full Council for two years and the next review is in February 2019.”

He argued that if the economic development and tourism committee were to be disbanded, the same should be done to all council committees. 

“If Cr Gair wants to shut this advisory committee then all committees should be spilled and reviewed,” Cr Scandrett said. 

In response to the claims that the committee needed to be ‘rejuvenated’, Cr Scandrett disagreed as the committee was reviewed earlier this year. 

“Some 23 committee applications were reviewed in February 2017, and 12 were appointed,over half of the committee are new appointees and the balance was renewed,” he said.

“The selection panel was the Mayor, myself and the General manager [Ann Prendergast] with input from Mark Pepping DGM and Noel Ferguson, EDM.

“We looked for a broad range of commercial and enterprise input. Clr Gair and Council approved that selection in February.

“The committee has formally met five times since then, the first three were mostly induction and knowledge sessions.”