March 15, 2021 4:00pm by David Farrar

How the WCC Crs vote

Cr Fleur Fitzsimons in her recent guest post said that there is no bloc or coven against Mayor Foster lamenting the demise of Justin Lester, and that different Crs often vote different ways.

I thought it would be interesting to look at some data on this, so I went through the votes at their recent long-term plan meeting. There were 41 non-unanimous votes. I’ve compiled two tables. The first is how often a Cr was in the majority, and the second is how often each Cr voted with each other Cr.

Here is how often each Cr was on the “winning” side:

  • Cr Laurie Foon 95%
  • Deputy Mayor Sarah Free 85%
  • Cr Jenny Condie 80%
  • Mayor Andy Foster 76%
  • Cr Rebecca Matthews 76%
  • Cr Jill Day 73%
  • Cr Fleur Fitzsimons 73%
  • Cr Teri O’Neill 73%
  • Cr Tamatha Paul 71%
  • Cr Iona Pannett 68%
  • Cr Malcolm Sparrow 61%
  • Cr Sean Rush 56%
  • Cr Diane Calvert 46%
  • Cr Simon Woolf 44%
  • Cr Nicola Young 43%

So Cr Foon is most likely to be in the majority followed by DM Free. Mayor Foster is in the majority 75% of the time. Cr Calvert, Woolf and Young most likely to be in the minority.

This shows how often each Cr voted with other Crs at that meeting. Taking them in turn we have:

  • Mayor Foster most often votes with Cr Condie at 85% and DM Free at 80%. Least often votes with Cr Pannett and Cr Paul.
  • Cr Calvert votes with Cr Woolf 93% of the time and Cr Young 84%. Least often with Cr Pannett at 15% and Crs Day, Fitzsimons and O’Neill
  • Cr Condie most often votes with Mayor Foster at 85% and DM Free at 80%. Least often with Cr Pannett at 49% and Cr Paul at 51%
  • Cr Fitzsimons votes 100% with Crs Day and O’Neill and 98% Crs Paul and Matthews and 95% Cr Pannett. Votes least at 14% with Cr Young and 17% Cr Woolf.
  • Cr Foon votes most at 80% with DM Free and Cr Matthews and least with Cr Young at 38%
  • DM Free votes most with Mayor Foster, Cr Condie and Cr Foon at 80%. Least with Cr Pannett at 54% (interesting as both are Greens)
  • Cr Matthews votes 98% with Crs Day, Fotzsimons and O’Neill and 95% Cr Paul and 93% Cr Pannett. Votes least at 16% with Cr Young and 20% Cr Woolf.
  • Cr O’Neill votes 100% with Crs Day and Fitzsimons and 98% Crs Paul and Matthews and 95% Cr Pannett. Votes least at 14% with Cr Young and 17% Cr Woolf.
  • Cr Pannett votes 98% with Cr Paul, 95% with Crs O’Neill, Day and Fitzsimons and 93% Cr Matthews. She votes 8% with Cr Young
  • Cr Paul votes 98% with Crs Pannett, Fitzsimons, Day and O’Neill and 95% Cr Matthews.
  • Cr Rush votes 71% with Mayor Foster and 70% Cr Young. Least is Crs Day, Fitzsimons, O’Neill and Pannett at 29%
  • Cr Sparrow votes 76% with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Cr Condie. Least is 34% with Cr Pannett
  • Cr Woolf votes most with Cr Calvert at 93% and Cr Young 89%. Least with Cr Pannett at 12%
  • Cr Young votes most with Cr Woolf at 89% and Cr Calvert at 84%. Least with Cr Pannett at 8% and Cr Paul at 11%

There are five Councillors who did vote together between 95% and 100% of the time on the long-term plan votes. It may be different for other votes.