CEO advises Napier councillors not to attend public pool meeting on legal advice

None of the 12 councillors attended the public meeting. Photo / File

A senior Napier City councillor has described a decision not to attend Tuesday night's Friends of Onekawa Aquatic Centre meeting as a "no-brainer" after councillors were told of the legal risks.

All 12 councillors were invited by the new society's chairman, but apologies for absence were extended after councillors received an mid-afternoon email from council chief executive Wayne Jack advising them not to attend because of possible conflicts amid legal action taken by the society in an attempt to halt an estimated $44 million project on a new site off Prebensen Dr, Tamatea.

The council, also considering a cheaper upgrade of the long-serving and central Onekawa site, was split 6-6 before Acting Mayor Faye White's casting vote saw a tendering process activated on April 17.

Jack sought legal advice on councillor attendance at the Friends society meeting, and then advised councillors not to attend.

Tony Jeffery, with 18 years behind him on the council and who was among the six who voted against the Prebensen Dr plan, said had it not been for the warning he would have gone, but it was a "no-brainer" once the legal advice was received.

He said if he had attended he would have been an observer and wouldn't have spoken, though there would have been difficulties if the meeting was being told information that was clearly wrong.

"I think where the society may have got it wrong was in tying the meeting to the legal action," he said. "If it had been simply a public meeting to discuss the pool issue then it would have been different."

Experts have, however, questioned the advice, including saying there were issues about councillors' rights to take part in a public forum.

Jack wrote in his email: "While attendance at the meeting might seem like an appropriate way to engage with an interest group ... the reality is that the group is in litigation against the Council, and the purpose of the meeting is to seek support for that litigation.

"It would not be appropriate for members of the Council's governing body to participate in a meeting aimed at furthering legal proceedings against the Council," he wrote.