Ombudsman asks to meet with parties involved in Belford OIA request

Hawke's Bay regional councillor Tom Belford, pictured, will meet with the Ombudsman this week, about an Official Information Act request made by former CHB mayor Peter Butler.

How much correspondence information should an elected representative be compelled to release to the public as a matter of public interest?

This question is being tested this week when the Ombudsman plans to visit the region to meet with Hawke's Bay regional councillor Tom Belford about an Official Information Act (OIA) request made by former CHB mayor Peter Butler last year.

It was before the local body elections and Mr Butler had asked Mr Belford for all correspondence, including digital, of communications he had had with third parties about the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme between August 8 and 25 last year.

The third parties were Greenpeace sustainable agriculture campaigner Genevieve Toop, former Green Party leader Russell Norman, political strategist and campaign manager Simon Lusk, Hawke's Bay Today and Radio New Zealand reporter Peter Fowler.

In December last year, the regional council voted to support Mr Belford in his denial of the request, which Mr Butler had taken to the Ombudsman asking for the decision to be reviewed.

Ombudsman Leo Donnelly has since requested to meet Mr Belford and other parties involved in the correspondence.

At this week's regional council corporate and strategic committee meeting, Mr Belford asked if any other councillors would also like to meet with Mr Donnelly, given the council had subsequently rejected two OIA requests from Hawke's Bay Today and Fairfax.

Councillor Alan Dick, who had been against turning down Mr Butler's request, said he was not happy with these further requests being denied by acting chief executive Greg Woodham.

When asked later why he was unhappy with them being declined, he said he respected it was the chief executive's decision to make, but that meetings when councillors were about council business deserved to be in the open.

"There is a law there and it has to be obeyed, and we have to conduct ourselves with transparency."

Central Hawke's Bay councillor Debbie Hewitt agreed.

"I don't think any councillors should have anything to hide - when we were elected as regional councillors we stood and took a declaration that included abiding by the Local Government Official Information Meetings Act, and a few councillors have decided to behave beyond these processes."

She said she had submitted her information as requested by the media.

Wairoa councillor Fenton Wilson said that while he understood that councillors may not want to release correspondence from members of the general public in the context of such requests, when they were asked specific questions under the OIA about communications between themselves that was different.

Mr Woodham said he made the decision to deny the media requests from the stance of a bureaucrat, brought into an interim role, who had not had to deal with these kind of matters before.

"I thought what is the point of this, and what's the public interest?

"That was the beginning and the end. I was told that depending on the way it was written I had the ability to decline so I did so - I may live to regret that, and that would be a learning curve."

The public interest aspect of all three of these requests will be tested in this case, Mr Belford said, and he had the support of others on council.

The principle behind his decision to deny Mr Butler's request was to protect the privacy of individual councillors so they could have full and frank discussions with constituents and each other, a position he had maintained from the beginning.

The same applied to the media requests, and he said the Ombudsman had acknowledged the three were dealing with the same principle.

Accusations that denying releasing the information was against the law were "crazy", he said.

"This is routine for people to test what the law requires - these are coming to the Ombudsman all the time.

"We think our interpretation is justifiable and are asking for it to be considered on this basis."

Council chairman Rex Graham had previously been adamant that allowing the information requests would set a dangerous precedent in terms of people's privacy, and maintained that position.

"I value the fact that councillors and people from all walks of life can talk to me openly and frankly without fear of betrayal."

The Ombudsman will be meeting with Mr Belford, some other councillors and other third parties mentioned in Mr Butler's OIA request on June 1.