proposal, Vandervis said: "To me, this is quite seriously a piece of ridiculous PC virtue signalling." Deputy Mayor Christine Garey said Vandervis' comments regarding the proposal were ‘‘offensive and embarrassing in 2021 in our city’’. In early December 2021, Vandervis objected to the Dunedin City Council's vaccine pass requirement for accessing council premises and services as part of the New Zealand Government's COVID-19 Protection Framework. Since Vandervis had chosen not to get vaccinated for COVID-19, he was only allowed to attend virtual council meetings. He claimed that the Governments' COVID-19 policies breached the right to refuse medical treatment under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, free speech, lawful assembly, and justice. On 7 December, Vandervis was trespassed from the Dunedin City Council for three months after attempting to attend meeting without a COVID-19 vaccine pass. Vandervis objected to the trespass notice, claiming that access to essential services could not be restricted based on vaccine status. On 23 February 2022, Vandervis supported fellow councillor Andrew Whiley's motion for the Dunedin City Council to join "Communities 4 Local Democracy," a coalition of local bodies opposed to the Government's Three Waters reform programme. The motion passed by a narrow margin of eight to seven votes. On 29 March, the DCC voted by a margin of seven to six to overturn their earlier decision to join "Communities 4 Local Democracy" following a breakdown in the Council's relationship with local Māori runanga (tribal councils). In response, Vandervis condemned the reversal as a rejection of local democracy in favour of "centralised control." In late April 2022, Vandervis was identified as having personally edited his own Wikipedia page, in breach of Wikipedia's conflict of interest policy. His edits removed several relevant passages in the article, including references to various incidents that cast Vandervis in a negative light. These edits were subsequently reversed. In mid June 2022, Vandervis drew media attention when he questioned the facts of the September 11 attacks, disputing official and eyewitness accounts that two planes had destroyed the World Trade Center's skyscrapers. 2022–2025 term During the 2022 Dunedin local elections, Vandervis ran as Mayor and campaigned on reducing the city's projected debt of NZ$106 million and accused the Dunedin City Council of increasing debt each year. Though he was defeated during the mayoral race, Lee Vandervis was re-elected as a city councillor. On 19 October 2022, he was appointed by Mayor Jules