Councillors Won’t Participate in Invetigation

By Frank Neill

Four of the five Wellington City councillors who have been issued with a code of conduct

complaint have said they will not participate in the investigation.

Councillors Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Tony Randle and Nicola Young said in a media release issued on 1 November that they would not be participating in what they described as a political and biased attack.

The five councillors were the subject of a code of conduct complaint made by the Mayor Tory

Whanau and the Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon in October.

The complaint claims that they leaked confidential information to the media.

“As these allegations from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are evidently designed to attempt to

silence and discredit a third of Council’s elected members, we have advised them we will not be participating in this political and biased attack – and certainly not one that irresponsibly uses ratepayer funding,” the councillors’ media release says.

“We were surprised to receive the initial communication from the Mayor and the investigator

[Linda Clark from Dentons Kensington Swan] as no one (Mayor, Deputy Mayor, or Chief Executive) had discussed these allegations with us, nor sought any comment from us.

“Neither the Mayor nor the Chief Executive has provided us with any support yet have continued to use the significant resources of the council against us.

“The evidence provided by the investigator for the code of conduct allegations, is purely

circumstantial, very loose and certainly not sufficient to launch an investigation of this nature.

“The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are using council resources to target the elected members whose views don’t conform with the politics of the Mayor, and who want a higher level of accountability around council business.

“The Mayor is also clearly pursuing an attack on democracy against councillors carrying out their role as elected members, which includes monitoring the performance of the council against its stated objectives and policies and prudent stewardship of ratepayers’ monies.

“It was distressing to hear the Mayor speak on Newstalk ZB on Monday October 30 2023 about councillors leaking information, which points to her predetermination of the outcome of the ‘independent review’.

“She also discussed her prior association with investigator, Linda Clark, showing an obvious

conflict.

“Once again, the Mayor herself discussed the proposed Reading deal.

“We have been overwhelmed with public support since the allegations became known,” the

councillors say.

“The Mayor, however, continues to undermine us in an attempt to reduce our ability to carry out our duties as elected members representing a significant number of Wellingtonians.”

Crs Calvert and Chung are Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward Councillors, Cr Randle is a

Takapū/Northern Ward Councillor and Nicola Young is a Pukehῑnau/Lambton Ward Councillor.