Hutt councillor stung by his own Code of Conduct reimbursement motion
Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Hutt City councillor Chris Milne is refusing to cover the costs of an investigation into his conduct, despite introducing the provision for the council to seek reparations, himself.
Earlier this month disciplinary action was taken against Milne after an external review found him to have made “material and serious” code of conduct breaches relating to two separate complaints.
He was ordered to make a public apology, undertake training and pay $16,500 towards the cost of the investigation. The total cost was $27,500, excluding GST.
The ability for the Hutt City Council to recoup costs from a code of conduct investigation is unusual among councils, and was introduced and passed following an amendment motioned by Milne in December 2016.
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“That was on the basis the council process was a judicial process … the judicial process has not been followed,” he told Stuff.
A council spokesman said “council would expect any court to uphold its decision, and reserves the right to recover costs if payment is not made by Cr Milne”.
Milne was found to have interfered with the council’s waste and recycling tender process, and to have had an ongoing conflict of interest while the council considered selling land for the benefit of Hutt Valley Tennis where his wife is president.
He has maintained the complaints against him, review and disciplinary process have been a political hit-job orchestrated by Mayor Campbell Barry as payback for his role in publicising Barry’s private land dealings. He denied any role in promulgating that issue.
Milne felt evidence disproving wrongdoing on his part had been ignored.
Barry rubbished the claim, saying the Code of Conduct was not a political tool.
”It’s about upholding the values and standards the community expects of elected members. Ultimately councillor Milne’s conduct fell well short of those standards, and his colleagues sought to hold him to account for that.”
Milne had until October 23 to deliver an apology, and that day released a letter addressed to Barry stating he’d received legal advice. He refused to issue an apology and concluded penalties imposed on him were invalid.
”You are entitled to ask for an apology or that I attend a training session in place of one of the penalties, or impose a penalty on me, but not both,” he said in the letter.
His letter also claimed advice from Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) had been its legal advisors saw no power in legislation to allow a council to fine a councillor.
An LGNZ spokesman said the organisation had developed a baseline Code of Conduct template as a guide which councils could modify according to their own specific needs.
“We included measures that our advice provided certainty around, but the template was never intended to be a complete list.”
On Tuesday Milne was stripped of his roles as a Risk and Audit Subcommittee member and director of Seaview Marina for his refusal to apologise.
Milne received $7000 a year for his marina appointment – this will no longer be paid to him.
Milne told Stuff the matter was now with his lawyers.