By BERNARD ORSMAN
The Auckland City Council is spending thousands on lawyers and public relations to stop a judge from jailing Grey Lynn man Ike Finau for thumbing his nose at a court order.
The council yesterday urged Judge Roderick Joyce to reconsider his decision to jail Finau, who has refused
to remove billboards from the front yard of his property in Warnock St.
The council wants to cool matters with a fresh court order to go on to the property and take down the signs.
Judge Joyce had given Finau a deadline of January 20 to remove the signs or he would be jailed for 21 days for contempt of court.
But the signs remain.
The council, which in June 2001 ordered the billboards removed for contravening a bylaw against signs in residential areas, does not want to make a martyr of Finau.
He is a member of the Water Pressure Group and began erecting signs three years ago abusing City Vision councillors Bruce Hucker and Penny Sefuiva.
Thousands of dollars have been spent for lawyers on the case.
The council has also spent $1516 on a poll of 226 residents, which found that 83 per cent supported the bylaw banning signs in residential areas.
Ninety per cent of respondents said that someone should take down an illegal sign if the court so instructed.
In a memorandum to Judge Joyce yesterday, the council said the signs on Finau's property were muted compared with those previously displayed. They include royalist and pro-Team New Zealand signs.
Last month a frustrated Judge Joyce referred to Finau's "stubborn perversity and obstinacy" and said that for 11 months he had "chosen deliberately to flout - quite wilfully and blatantly to ignore - that which the court has required of him".
The council's memorandum said it appeared that Finau and his supporters were using the prospect of his being jailed to cast him as a martyr for free speech, rather than someone who had displayed continuing contempt for court orders.
Senior council staff and councillors thought jailing Finau appeared to be a "disproportionate and unnecessary remedy" given the current nature of the signs, the memorandum said.
Judge Joyce told the council he would hear its application to stay his December order to jail Finau in open court on February 20.
Finau could not be reached last night for comment.
Councillor Penny Sefuiva, who has been a victim of the signs and lives nearby, said the issue appeared trivial on the surface.
"But he is obviously being clearly provocative, and in the end the court has to be the bottom line, otherwise how do you ever have a law of the land that stands.
"You just cannot allow the court to be blatantly undermined."
By BERNARD ORSMAN
The Auckland City Council is spending thousands on lawyers and public relations to stop a judge from jailing Grey Lynn man Ike Finau for thumbing his nose at a court order.
The council yesterday urged Judge Roderick Joyce to reconsider his decision to jail Finau, who has refused
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