Douglas defends his past after blog attack

Hawke's Bay Regional Councillor Murray Douglas has rejected the claims of what he calls a very 'personal attack' on his credentials.Photo / Duncan Brown

Hawke's Bay Regional Council election candidate Murray Douglas is rejecting a blogger's suggestion he is "New Zealand's dodgiest local body politician".

The blog has been picked up by an opponent, Tom Belford, to use against Mr Douglas.

Mr Douglas, an incumbent councillor, described Auckland blogger Cameron Slater's comments on his past with the Dunedin City Council as "a very painful and personal attack", which was deliberately synchronised with the distribution of voting papers last week.

Mr Slater posted on his website newspaper articles dating back to 1999 tracking Mr Douglas' departure from Dunedin where he was the city council's chief executive.

Mr Slater is an associate of Hawke's Bay political campaigner Simon Lusk.

Mr Lusk has said he is running a negative third-party campaign to unseat Hawke's Bay regional councillors.

Mr Slater said Mr Douglas promoted himself as an experienced local government manager but had omitted to explain the circumstances of his exit from Dunedin, where he was paid about $240,000 to leave.

He had also left his job as chief executive of the City of Sydney council in Australia.

"Murray Douglas needs to explain to the people of Hawke's Bay why he should be elected when he received two payouts ... and took a lot of ratepayers money on his way out."

Mr Douglas said his departure from Dunedin was the result of a new mayor and new council looking to travel in a different direction.

"It was in my second contract period with a year to go when we had a new council voted in.

"Councils can make decisions to take a different path from the previous one and sometimes that involves a change in chief executive. In Dunedin, they decided for change. Council identified me with the old mayor and my contract was closed. That's what councils do and you get a contracted pay out, rather than sitting around for another year."

Mr Douglas moved over to Australia where he worked at the Moonee Valley council in Melbourne and later at the City of Sydney council.

"In Sydney it was different, it's a very political climate because you have federal, state and local government all wanting the best for the city but with different views on how to achieve that. That was something I didn't realise before taking up the role and I didn't enjoy it. There has only been one CEO there in 30 years who has served out their contract and unfortunately there's a bit of a revolving door."

Mr Douglas, a former Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO, said he did not believe anything in his past would impact on his ability to serve the public on council. He agreed candidates should be transparent in their public promotion profiles: "But it shouldn't be highlighted in a blog because it's largely anonymous without journalistic investigation. In this case, I wasn't even asked for comment.

Mr Douglas said he was aware the blog had been commented on by his opponent for a seat on the council, Mr Belford, on his website.

Mr Belford said Mr Douglas promoted himself as a local government leader and voters should expect he could "back this up".

"He is the one who has gone back in history and said he ran Dunedin and City of Sydney and so his sudden departure from those organisations warrants public explanation and clarification. The (Slater) articles raise these questions."

He said if Mr Douglas had not promoted himself as "the superstar" of local government, his credentials in this area would not be under scrutiny.