Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
The agenda for next week's fluoride-themed Whangārei District Council meeting reveals councillors will be asked to revoke an earlier decision not to fluoridate the city's water supply.
The advice says they should be ready to fluoridate by the end of the month, but also to be on standby to immediately halt the work if a court case goes their way.
The timeline is razor thin. Originally the meeting was scheduled to take place held behind closed doors on Tuesday this week. However, at the start of the meeting a majority of councillors voted against holding the discussion while the public was excluded.
As a result, the meeting had to be rescheduled to Monday, 17 March, to allow for the obligatory three-day notice period for a public meeting.
The meeting agenda, by council chief executive Simon Weston, states that the Ministry of Health's deadline for starting fluoridation is 28 March. But to meet that deadline - because of the time needed for 'wet testing' of the newly installed fluoridation equipment - dosing of the water supply would have to start on 19 March.
The High Court is due to decide on the council's application for an injunction, which would buy councillors time until their legal challenge against fluoridation can be heard later this year, on 18 March.
The staff recommendation is to start fluoridation testing no later than the morning of 19 March, but to put the work on hold if the council's application for an injunction succeeds.
The agenda also spells out the costs to date incurred by ratepayers, and the potential costs to come. The cost of fluoride equipment is $4.56 million, of which the Ministry of Health has so far paid half.
The council is due to be reimbursed for the remaining $2.28m once the equipment is commissioned. The agenda report states that would not be paid out, and the council could be ordered to repay the initial $2.28m if fluoridation did not go ahead.
As of Tuesday this week, the council's legal costs were more than $73,000, but that would be higher by the time of next week's meeting.
The council could also be fined $200,000 if convicted of contravening an order to fluoridate, plus another $10,000 per day if it continued to flout the ministry's instructions.
The council is seeking another $1.5 million from the ministry for fluoridation equipment for its Poroti water treatment plant.
"Under the current circumstances, the Ministry of Health is unlikely to consider providing additional funding," the report states.
The agenda continues by setting out the legal risks to councillors and staff, and the risks that the Ministry of Health or even the minister for local government could intervene.
The report also reveals that fluoride was ordered on 12 March to fill storage tanks, and that the dose will be between 0.7 and 1.0mg per litre with a target setting of 0.85mg/l.
A stern letter from Director-General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati, dated 18 February and included with the agenda, states she will "give consideration to legal options" if the council does not comply by the 28 March deadline.
Since then however Sarfati has resigned her position, and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described ordering Whangārei to fluoridate its water supply as "a despotic Soviet-era disgrace".
Correction: This story was amended at 6.29pm on 13 March to remove the incorrect claim that part of Monday's extraordinary meeting was still expected to be held in public-excluded.
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