'Respect is a two-way street': Goff says no tolerance for bullying from staff or councillors

Wednesday, 13 June 2018

A letter of 'no confidence' from Auckland councillors to the mayor was released publicly on Wednesday.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is denying allegations of bullying that have been levelled at council committee chairpeople .

Long-serving Auckland councillor Chris Fletcher on Wednesday made allegations of bullying both against councillors appointed by Goff to committee chair positions, and his team of staff.

The report found that a waterfront stadium in the city centre would cost up to $1.5 billion.

Fletcher made the accusation in the wake of the release of a letter from her and eight other councillors criticising Goff for what they called a lack of transparency and creating a distrustful environment.

Goff said on Wednesday evening that he had received and passed on occasional complaints to staff when councillors had disagreed with his staff or were unhappy with their approach but said no formal bully accusations had ever been levelled against them.

* Auckland mayor Phil Goff puts stadium talks on hold - for the next decade at least

In May, councillor Efeso Collins told Stuff he was 'appalled' at the handling of the report.

* Auckland councillors 'appalled' by mayor's handling of stadium report**

'I don't think it's ever a good idea to have a go at staff when staff aren't able to answer back,' he said.

Cathy Casey was one of three councillors who went to the Ombudsman following Goff's handling of the stadium report.

'I'm not about to tolerate bullying from anyone, whether they be an elected representative or a staff member.'

In an email to Goff on Wednesday, Fletcher said: 'I have observed this with considerable concern for over a year now. I have attempted to convey this at various times to you, the deputy mayor and your changing chief of staffs.

'While I have tried to work constructively with you to advance policy for Auckland I have been dismayed by your failure to address this malaise.

'Bullying in any form is unacceptable to me,' Fletcher said.

'The council workplace is no different. While I have not been the target for much of the nonsense, others have been hurt and I will no longer remain silent on this.

'I voted for you. I want you to be successful in advancing positive policy for Auckland but I want to see better process and an inclusive council workplace where all councillors are treated respectfully,' she said.

Fletcher later clarified that her intention was not to level accusations against Goff personally and said the mayor was an 'honourable man'.

'It was meant to refer to those people for whom Goff is responsible,' she said.

'He sets the committees, he appoints the chairs and he has his mayoral staff.

'He should be ever vigilant that the people around him withstand scrutiny.'

Fletcher said there were councillors who didn't want to go to meetings anymore because the atmosphere in council had become 'quite toxic'.

Goff said he expected councillors and staff to act with integrity but said many of the allegations made on Wednesday had been leaked to the media before he had even seen them.

'Tolerance and respect and integrity is a two-way street,' he said.

In the letter to Goff, nine out of 19 councillors complained about his handling of plans for a new waterfront stadium.

Councillors Cathy Casey, Chris Fletcher, Sharon Stewart, Efeso Collins, John Watson, Wayne Walker, Greg Sayers, Mike Lee and Daniel Newman have all put their names to it.

They cited a lack of transparency and creation of a distrustful environment.

Councillors wrote 'we should give formal expression to our concerns relating to the manner in which the PWC report into the proposed 'downtown national football stadium' has been handled'.

'In our view the result is a rather distrustful political working environment within Council,' the letter said.

'Quite simply the question of trust and transparency within the Auckland Council is getting worse not better as far as we're concerned.'

After receiving the letter Goff said it was the nature of politics.

There was 'no lack of transparency' and councillors had access to a copy of the report two weeks after he had received it, Goff said.

Some parts of the report had been redacted because stakeholders had included commercially sensitive information, he said.

The redactions had not been made by the mayor but with the council's lawyers and Regional Facilities Auckland, and had been agreed upon by the Ombudsman, he said.

'There was no secret around the report,' Goff said.

'I won't always do what some councillors want - that's not my job.'

His responsibility was to the people of Auckland and issues such as traffic and the environment were his priority - not the stadium, he said.

Goff said he had an open door policy and wanted councillors to talk to him directly if they had issues.

Fletcher said she signed the letter because she was concerned over the 'increasingly arrogant and disrespectful behaviour' by Goff's team to some councillors which has 'led to them becoming hurt and marginalised'.

A report in May looked at the benefits and disadvantages of building a new waterfront stadium instead of redeveloping Eden Park.

The report found a new stadium, which would have a retractable roof and seat up to 55,000 spectators, would cost up to $1.5 billion. This was $700 million more than it would cost to improve Eden Park.

While the report was hoped to finalise a decision on whether a new stadium was a genuine possibility, it instead concluded that a more detailed report was needed.

Goff was accused of trying to limit access of councillors to the report.

Collins said he was 'absolutely appalled by how this has been handled'.

'It is not a high trust environment where we have to go up to the mayors' office to view this report under the eye of his staff,' Collins said.

'I suspect he fears information could be leaked, but that is his issue. We are the elected members of Auckland if he does not trust us with the findings, who will he trust?'

Casey, Collins and Watson later complained to the Ombudsman.

Casey said the conditions on viewing the report were 'ridiculous' and elected members had the same rights to view the report as Goff.

'We are elected representatives, just like the mayor. He has no more right of access than we have. In our three wards alone we represent nearly 500,000 Aucklanders,' Casey said.

Watson said Goff's behaviour when it came to the stadium had been 'concerning'.