Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Council settles dismissal case

By Sam Hurley
Hawkes Bay Today·
11 Feb, 2015 05:55 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Former Napier City Council economic development manager Ron Massey. Photo / File

Former Napier City Council economic development manager Ron Massey. Photo / File

A former employee and the Napier City Council have come to an "amicable" agreement after allegations the senior manager damaged the council's reputation and made derogatory remarks.

Complaints made against former Napier City Council economic development manager Ron Massey led to a formal investigation, and what Mr Massey claims was a pre-determined and unjustified dismissal in March last year.

Following Mr Massey's departure, the council remained tight-lipped, with council chief executive Wayne Jack telling Hawke's Bay Today at the time, "we do not discuss employment matters".

However, yesterday a two-day Employment Relations Authority (ERA) hearing in Napier was abandoned following the agreement between the two parties.

Mr Massey was seeking compensation for lost income.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The complaints, last February, from the council's marketing manager Rebecca Ainsworth and Hawke's Bay Tourism general manager Annie Dundas followed comments Mr Massey made during a Hawke's Bay Tourism meeting, including talk of the council's failed Art Deco buses venture which lost $1.5m.

A third complaint from the council's communications manager Robyn McLean was also revealed yesterday.

However, Mr Jack said Ms McLean's complaint was not part of the investigation and was also controversially not disclosed to Mr Massey or his lawyer Tony Snell.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It is strikingly concerning that we haven't been given this," Mr Snell said.

"Natural justice demands that we get this sort of stuff - up until this morning we didn't even know that Robyn McLean had even made a formal complaint."

ERA member Trish McKinnon said it was "unsatisfactory" and could not see why the documents relating to Mrs McLean's complaint were not disclosed earlier.

She ordered a five minute adjournment for Mr Jack to "fast trot" back to the nearby council buildings and retrieve copies of the complaint. Later, during cross-examination, the chief executive could not explain why the complaint had not been included in the investigation.

Discover more

Money allocated for merger fight

08 Feb 05:51 PM

Discounts for old given short shrift

10 Feb 01:25 AM

Pandora wall tagged

10 Feb 08:17 AM

Napier approves fighting fund

12 Feb 03:07 AM

However, Mr Jack, who admitted the suspension on February 10 last year was based on hearsay, rebutted claims there was a hidden agenda to push Mr Massey out the door.

He added the complaints were forthcoming and not solicited, but were of "extreme concern" and showed Mr Massey had no loyalty to the council.

Further allegations against Mr Massey included him making "derogatory remarks" about Flaxmere residents using public facilities along Marine Parade.Mr Massey was a director of Nature Green (NZ) Ltd, a charitable company set up in 2006 as a fundraiser for disabled people.

It sold ginkgo trees to growers and bought back the leaf for use in medicines popular in Asia, but went into liquidation in 2012, owing $1.2m.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Home scorched as hoarded goods that surrounded it go up in flames

21 Jun 02:38 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

'Geriatric poverty': Outrage over Central Hawke’s Bay water rate hikes

21 Jun 12:56 AM
Premium
Opinion

Matariki is the ‘door to the new year’: Te Hira Henderson

20 Jun 07:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Home scorched as hoarded goods that surrounded it go up in flames

Home scorched as hoarded goods that surrounded it go up in flames

21 Jun 02:38 AM

Firefighters are keeping a close watch to ensure the piles of debris do not reignite.

'Geriatric poverty': Outrage over Central Hawke’s Bay water rate hikes

'Geriatric poverty': Outrage over Central Hawke’s Bay water rate hikes

21 Jun 12:56 AM
Premium
Matariki is the ‘door to the new year’: Te Hira Henderson

Matariki is the ‘door to the new year’: Te Hira Henderson

20 Jun 07:00 PM
Premium
Watch: Forestry skidder tipped over cliff after logging company goes bust

Watch: Forestry skidder tipped over cliff after logging company goes bust

20 Jun 06:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP