Simon Mutonhori (inset) formerly worked as a manager of planning and regulatory services at Wairoa District Council. Photos / Paul Taylor / Supplied
A sacked council manager who complained about “stupid laws” and said a junior colleague was “demeaning” him when she asked him to fill in a tax form has received a costly setback in his long-running court case against his former employer.
Simon Mutonhori worked for the Wairoa District Council as manager of planning and regulatory services from February 2020 until he was dismissed in August 2022.
He later gained a job at Mt Isa City Council in Queensland and was sacked from that role the following year.
Mutonhori has been trying to get his dismissal from the Wairoa council declared unjustified by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and the Employment Court.
But his unsuccessful legal action, described by a judge as “over-long and complicated” and reliant on “irrelevant pleadings and materials”, is about to get more expensive for him.
The Employment Court has ordered him to pay the Wairoa council $33,000 in court costs – money Mutonhori says he does not have.
During Mutonhori’s time in Wairoa, the council was warned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that it might lose its accreditation to issue building consents – a function he was responsible for.
Mutonhori told Government officials that while he might manage regulatory enforcement functions, he considered the regulations were “guidelines which should be disregarded if he thought that appropriate”, according to an ERA decision.
When an issue arose about his use of a council vehicle for private use, Mutonhori complained that a request for information from a member of the finance team was “unwarranted, offensive and demeaning of my person and the office I hold”.
When the staff member took the issue to the council chief executive Kitea Tipuna, she said in an email: “Simon believes he is above and outside the scope for NZ tax legislation and also exempt from providing essential information to colleagues”.
The ERA said answers he gave during an investigation “strongly indicate he was offended the request had come from a female who occupied what Mr Mutonhori considered a position of lesser seniority in the council structure”.
After Mutonhori was dismissed from his job, he held on to documents that had been sent to his private email address and contained commercially sensitive information and personal details about council staff. Another court decision ordered him to give them back or delete them.
Mutonhori stood for the Wairoa mayoralty after he was sacked, pledging to restore “trust, faith and confidence” in the council.
He told electors the council had become a “secret cult” making decisions behind closed doors and was no longer accountable to ratepayers.
In the 2022 local body election, he won 437 votes or about 15% of those cast. Craig Little was re-elected mayor with 1486 votes.
The council has so far successfully defeated Mutonhori’s challenges to his dismissal, but says the case has cost more than $37,000 in legal fees.
A costs decision from Judge Joanna Holden in the Employment Court last week awarded the council $33,000.
Mutonhori had already deposited $15,000 in the court as security for costs after an earlier judgment, which will now be released to the council, along with interest earned.
He has been ordered to pay the balance of $17,461 to Wairoa District Council before January 30, 2026.
The former council manager, however, has told the court he is “impecunious”.
“He has withdrawn funds from his KiwiSaver account and sold his house to cover debt and his family’s upkeep, including private school fees for his child,” Judge Holden’s decision said.
Mutonhori has also pleaded a lack of funds in court proceedings in Queensland, where he has been embroiled in action against Mt Isa City Council, where he worked after leaving Wairoa.
Documents from the Industrial Court of Queensland show he was dismissed from a job with the Mt Isa council in December 2023.
Mutonhori has had a nearly 30-year career in local government. Before falling out with colleagues in Wairoa, he had won awards from the New Zealand Planning Institute and Society of Local Government Managers.
Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, Mutonhori moved to New Zealand in 2002 and joined the Whangārei District Council as a policy planner.
He also worked for Te Arawa River Iwi Trust in Rotorua and the Christchurch City Council, where he was one of a group of planners who drafted the Christchurch City Plan after the earthquakes.
Before moving to Wairoa, he was a planner at the Ashburton District Council.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.