Chairman Fenton Wilson rebuts councillors' gripes

Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Fenton Wilson has come out in support of council staff.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Fenton Wilson has defended the organisation's staff, who he says have been subjected to unfair criticism by a group of councillors.

A group of five employees, known as the Regional Council Staff Support Group, have written to all councillors expressing their "concerns at the attitude and behaviour of our elected council".

In its letter, the group, an elected body representing all staff, says: "The public in-fighting and direct insinuations regarding staff credibility have had a far reaching impact on staff morale."

It says "continual politicking has come at a time when, more than ever, we need council to show leadership, loyalty, maturity, professionalism and integrity. We have yet to see any outline or statement of strategic intent or direction from the council."

A recent division around the council table has involved four of the nine councillors criticising the organisation's submission in response to the board of inquiry draft submission on the Ruataniwha water storage scheme and related environmental plan change for the Tukituki catchment.

The four councillors - Rick Barker, Peter Beaven, Tom Belford and Rex Graham - complained the submission was sent to the board without their sign-off and have attempted to lodge their own submission.

Mr Graham said the four councillors would not comment because they believed the issues raised by staff in the letter should be addressed first by discussions among councillors and then directly with staff.

Mr Wilson said he would get councillors together this week for a private discussion on the issues raised in the letter.

"There are some issues that need sorting out. I do intend to get the team into a room and let's have a fairly frank discussion about some of these issues."

Mr Wilson said yesterday the blame for the concerns raised by staff rested with the four councillors.

"I share the frustration of the staff. We've got some damn good staff in that organisation and they're saying, 'enough is enough, whenever we come up with a report we get shot down by four councillors'.

"It's crazy stuff."

He said council staff had acted appropriately lodging the board of inquiry submission without seeking the approval of councillors.

"The staff have delegated authority. If we want to change that we're going to have to sit down and have a particular discussion about that, but in the meantime that's the policy, that's how it works and it [the actions of the four councillors] is amounting to almost political interference in a process."

He said a recent blog post by Mr Belford which used Dilbert cartoons and criticised the amount of money the council had spent investigating the Ruataniwha dam proposal was "a direct shot at staff".

"I don't know how else you could view it. We have obligations under the Local Government Act to be good employers and I don't know of any employers who ridicule their staff publicly."

Last month the council's deputy chair, Christine Scott, said she would take a code of conduct complaint against Mr Belford over comments he made in an earlier blog post, which also criticised council staff.

Mr Wilson said he had received a written complaint from Mrs Scott but had not yet followed it up.

Mr Belford could not be reached for comment last night.