‘Clear feeling of distrust’ at council after investigation, mayor acknowledges

Friday, 8 December 2023

“There is a clear feeling of distrust here,” Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau says of the council she pledged to bring together.

The Wellington City Council needs a reset, which she hopes to bring in by following the recommendations of the latest review.

The report into leaking by Dentons Kensington Swan partner Linda Clark – the draft and final copies of which were leaked to The Post – has officially found that five councillors breached the Code of Conduct, though there was not enough evidence to find who leaked the information.

The investigation centred on the leak of a council deal to purchase the land under the Reading Cinemas for $32m in order to fund a redevelopment of the site. The deal was meant to be kept secret but leaked immediately after the meeting.

The report made recommendations including a workshop for councillors to air grievances and a briefing on how the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act works.

The councillors who breached the Code were Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Iona Pannett, Tony Randle, and Nicola Young. The breaches all took the form of comments to the media, where councillors revealed information or cast aspersions on their colleagues or staff.

None of the five accept that they breached the Code, with Pannett describing the report as “wrong in facts and wrong in law”.

In an interview, Whanau said she was “extremely frustrated” with the leaking of information.

“For me, I don't see that as someone trying to be more transparent about a particular topic. What it actually does is derail certain processes.”

Pannett spoke for the first time since the investigation, which she found “hugely stressful” and had taken a toll on her relationship with the mayor.

“I support the mayor’s agenda, not everything but 90%. And that we have got distracted by this expensive and divisive process is just really, really disappointing.”

It was unprecedented for a mayor to investigate five councillors at once, with Pannett unable to recall a similar investigation in her two decades on council.

She strongly denied leaking information. Her singular comment to the media about the Reading Cinema deal was made after information had already been published about the meeting, including a statement from the mayor herself – sent out the day before Pannett’s comments were published.

“It's been personally stressful because the purpose of leaking is to undermine, and that was not what I was doing. I was giving a point of view on a public matter which I was representing constituents on,” she said.

The mayor knew she was not the leaker of the information, and told her so, Pannett said.

When questioned on this, Whanau said she would not get into her conversations with individual councillors.

A full-blown investigation was not the mayor’s only option to respond to the complaint about leaking, Pannett said. “She could have just rung me up. But she chose to do this.”

Whanau said she could understand why councillors were upset at the investigation – four of them called it a “failed costly vendetta” earlier in the week.

“If I were to put myself into their shoes I can see how it might might come across as quite shocking or blunt or whatever.”

The Code of Conduct investigation had not been about punishment, she said.

There was an upcoming review of the chairperson roles for all the council committees, but she did not see it as an opportunity to punish people for their breaches of the code.

“That’s not what it’s about.”

Pannett had asked for an apology from the mayor but had not received one.

Whanau could not give a cost estimate for the investigation by Clark, but said it would be released publicly once she knew.

Of the five councillors investigated, only Pannett received a positive mention in the mayor’s press release, where the mayor praised her work advocating for owners of earthquake prone buildings.

The other four – Calvert, Chung, Randle and Young – have been vocal throughout the process. The Code of Conduct process had been weaponised and was an orchestrated attempt to silence councillors for speaking up about the council’s finances, they said.

There was “insufficient evidence” to find the leaker and they rejected all other findings, slamming the report as “clutching at straws”.

“The report’s findings were based on incorrect assumptions, together with loose and conflated connections on comments made on other topics.”

In the interests of balance, they released a full copy of the report which can be read below.

Whanau said it had been harder than she anticipated to unite the council. There were some councillors who appeared to be unwilling to collaborate with her.

“If I’m honest, that has been very, very challenging, but I still think there is a way to get that collaborative and constructive way of working.

“For the majority of our council, the way that I work is working. I have a very clear majority but I've brought independent councillors, even more conservative councillors on side.”

The four councillors said they looked forward to a more inclusive leadership approach in the New Year.

During the investigation by Clark, her relationship with the mayor was under scrutiny amid claims that Whanau had dinner at her house.

Whanau said she did not think it was fair to criticise her relationship with Linda Clark, who was “an acquaintance”.

“We’ve come across each other maybe four or five times in my lifetime.” She had not gone to Clark for advice previously, she said.

Read the full report by Linda Clark here: