The Tauranga City Council administration building on Willow St. Photo / File
The Tauranga City Council administration building on Willow St. Photo / File
A new way of sorting out internal disputes in Tauranga City Council could lead to delays and extra costs with no tangible benefit to ratepayers for their money, a researcher says.
Last week Tauranga City Council agreed to set up an independent panel of three ex-judges, QCs orsimilar that could hear complaints about members breaching the Code of Conduct.
The code is a rule book for how the mayor and councillors should act in their elected roles. Complaints could be made about elected members by other members or the chief executive acting on behalf of staff.
The introduction of a panel was part of a wider update to the code following several internal clashes marring the start of the council term.
Massey University senior lecturer in journalism and communications Dr Catherine Strong has studied the codes of councils around New Zealand.
Strong reviewed Tauranga's updated code and, in particular, its complaints procedure for alleged breaches.
She said the complaints system was "sophisticated" but also a long, protracted procedure that would create a "considerable time lag between someone's outburst and any censure".
"This means the end decision may be useless in moulding a council culture or in developing behaviour modification.
"A major problem with the proposed system is that it looks to be costly, especially in below-the-line staff time, and also especially as it calls for every complaint to be referred to an independent investigation."
She said normally an investigation could cost $15,000 so the cost could quickly add up.
Massey University senior lecturer in journalism and communications Dr Catherine Strong. Photo / Supplied
"Ratepayers get nothing tangible in return from funding these type of internal disagreements."
She said the "extra layer of cost and procedure" stemmed in part from having an independent investigator do the "first cull" of any complaint to determine the level of the alleged breach and recommend how to proceed.
Previously, the mayor would do this task. She said the mayor not wanting this role - as the council has reported - was "understandable" but there could be another option to look into.
Tauranga City Council democracy services manager Coral Hair said the new system had been designed to have independence and remove any perception of bias influencing the outcome.
In reality, most Code of Conduct complaints were already being referred to an independent investigator.
She said the process taken after the initial investigation would depend on the type of complaint, and the council would still be the gatekeepers of that decision.
The first meeting of the new-look Tauranga City Council last year. Photo / File
The council could decide whether to hear the complaint themselves or refer it to the panel, a decision that would depend on factors such as how many members were involved in the matter or impacted by it.
"If we can do it ourselves it will save money."
The panel would be made up of people with the skills and experience to work through the issues efficiently.
Hair was pleased the elected members had owned the new code.
"I am hopeful we won't get too many complaints," she said.
Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell said prior to his arrival it was already the norm to send complaints to an independent investigator, so that was not a significant change.
Regarding the panel, he said Tauranga, perhaps more than other cities, needed a qualified, independent body to consider breaches.
He said the council was "very personality-driven" and included three others who ran for his job.
"We will have fierce debates, and some can become personal ... It's really important we have that level of independence."
He said there was no "red team and blue team" like in central Government, and the council was essentially made up of 11 different political parties trying to make decisions.
Even so, he believed the current council had already found more common ground than the previous one, and he hoped to see few if any complaints.
Strong also queried the rules for elected members using social media, which she said were overall very good.
While democratically sound, the rule that members could only block "abusive" posts did not allow them to address growing issues such as bots swamping Facebook discussions, misinformation and fake news.
"Elected members should be able to weed out fake news posts, while still keeping to the spirit of allowing open debate on local topics."
She said new language in the code ensuring members had the right to open debates was a good step, and it was also good that Tauranga was putting the effort into making a code that fit their specific needs rather than "relying on a formula".
