Despite the meeting being behind closed doors, details including that the council is considering buying the land underneath the building made their way into the public arena.
Mayor Tory Whanau has decided to launch an independent investigation and has called in high-profile lawyer Linda Clark to lead it.
It will be a costly exercise for a council facing myriad budget pressures. An investigation into a code of conduct complaint against former mayor Andy Foster cost about $30,000.
The codes of conduct elected members sign up to establish things like guidance for managing relationships, provisions for dealing with conflicts of interest, and for dealing with confidentiality of information.
Penalties for a material breach of a code of conduct can include a letter of censure, a request for an apology, a vote of no confidence, restricted entry to council offices, or an invitation for the member to consider resigning from council.
But it’s worth remembering the only way to get rid of a councillor or a mayor is at the ballot box.
An independent review of governance at Wellington City Council helpfully considered both the code of conduct issue and the leaking of commercially sensitive information.
The review was commissioned by Foster in 2021 and was undertaken by former Local Government New Zealand chief executive Peter Winder.
This exercise cost ratepayers about $90,000 so, let’s get their money’s worth and take a look at exactly what Winder said.
Winder said codes of conduct are a “curious” part of local government and while they may have been established with admirable intent, the process is entirely lacking in any consequence or meaningful enforcement mechanisms.
“Complaints tend to be a symptom that things aren’t going well. Unfortunately, they also have a tendency to morph into the cause for further problems and the widening of rifts.
“To make matters worse, often the making of complaints becomes contagious.”
Winder said during his review that five code of conduct complaints were brought to his attention at Wellington City Council.
He didn’t think that number was problematic from a council credibility perspective, but noted care should be taken to avoid them occurring.
“There are almost always more positive and constructive ways for differences to be resolved”, Winder said.
The Reading Cinema debacle appears to be the final straw for Whanau, who has faced previous challenges with the councillors involved and presumably turned to the code of conduct investigation as a last resort.
Whanau is following the process available to her and if the complaint is upheld, it will result in a public telling off.
But if she hopes this kind of independent investigation will draw a line in the sand, she should think again.
As Winder puts it, these complaints have the tendency to widen rifts, not solve them.
During interviews for Winder’s review, he spent a good deal of time assessing claims of “serial leaking”.
He was aware of three examples of confidential and commercially sensitive information being leaked: a report on the underwriting of Wellington Airport, a report on rates increase options, and commercial information relating to social housing.
While Winder considered these regrettable, he heard nothing to suggest the council had a unique and unparalleled culture of leaking compared with many other councils or the public sector in general.
The icing on the cake of this current situation is councillor Ray Chung claiming the council is in a state of “absolute dysfunction”.
Wellington City Council is not dysfunctional, nor is it in need of commissioners or a Crown observer.
Dysfunction is when the council finds itself in a deadlock on key decisions like the budget.
In this case, Wellington City Council is still making decisions, it’s just that they are not unanimous and that is completely normal considering councillors are elected from across the political spectrum.
They are not a caucus. They are not ministers in a Cabinet.
The open and transparent nature of politics in local government is too easily misconstrued for bad behaviour and disorder.
But let’s leave the final word to Winder since so much money was spent on his expert opinion.
Winder said he was told during his investigation that behaviour within the council was the “worst there has been in local government” and the level of dysfunction was “unmatched”.
But he said there was no evidence to support such “extreme claims” and some reactions from elected members and staff bordered on “catastrophising”.
• Senior Wellington journalist Georgina Campbell’s fortnightly column looks closely at issues in the capital.
