Sacked Wairoa council manager complained about ‘stupid laws’, emailed documents to private address

Simon Mutonhori has been ordered to delete or destroy any council documents still in his possession.

A council manager who complained a junior female colleague was “demeaning” him when she requested that he fill out a tax form went on to hold on to his employers’ confidential documents after he was sacked.

Decisions from the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) show Simon Mutonhori complained about “stupid laws” while he oversaw Wairoa District Council’s compliance with statutes and regulations.

They reveal that while the council and Mutonhori were embroiled in disciplinary proceedings, the council was warned it might lose its accreditation to issue building consents – a function he was responsible for.

And after Mutonhori was dismissed from his job, he held on to documents that had been sent to his private email address and contained commercially sensitive information and personal details about council staff.

Mutonhori used those documents in support of his unsuccessful bid to the ERA fighting against his dismissal from the position as the council’s group manager of planning and regulatory services.

The council has now obtained orders from the ERA requiring that Mutonhori delete or destroy any other council documents he has in his possession.

Mutonhori said the council was “paranoid”.

Marine Pde, Wairoa's main street. Simon Mutonhori stood unsuccessfully for the Wairoa mayoralty after being dismissed from the council. Photo / Warren Buckland

Mutonhori worked for the council between February 2020 and his dismissal on August 3, 2022.

After he was sacked he stood for the Wairoa mayoralty, winning 437 votes or about 15 per cent of those cast. Craig Little was re-elected mayor with 1486 votes.

Successive ERA decisions show that concerns were raised with the Wairoa council about the number of non-compliance issues detected during an audit of its building consent functions by International Assessment New Zealand (IANZ) in April 2022.

The lead assessor emailed Mutonhori and the council chief executive, Kitea Tipuna, seeking an action plan to address them within a month.

When the two officials discussed this, Mutonhori expressed the view that while he might manage regulatory enforcement functions, he considered the regulations “guidelines which should be disregarded if he thought that appropriate”, an ERA decision said.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment contacted the council about the IANZ assessment and warned that its building consents function could be transferred to another council.

About the same time, an issue arose about Mutonhori’s use of a council vehicle for private use, and reporting this for fringe benefit tax purposes.

When questioned, Mutonhori replied that the request from a member of the finance team was “unwarranted, offensive and demeaning of my person and the office I hold … [and this] has got to stop forthwith”.

When the staff member escalated the issue to Tipuna, she observed in an email: “Simon believes he is above and outside the scope for NZ Tax legislation and also exempt from providing essential information to colleagues.”

The ERA said answers he gave during an investigation “strongly indicate he was offended the request had come from a female who occupied what Mr Mutonhori considered a position of lesser seniority in the council structure”.

After Mutonhori was dismissed, he lodged proceedings with the ERA alleging unjustified disadvantage and unjustified dismissal, which he lost.

He supported his case using documents that had been sent to his personal email address while he was employed by the council.

One of them was a staff survey, which included personal information about council employees: names, email addresses, their health and wellbeing status, and details of personal events.

There were also two other documents which contained commercially sensitive information.

The ERA has now agreed with a council request that it make orders requiring Mutonhori to delete or destroy any other council documents in his possession.

Mutonhori was approached on social media for comment but has not replied.

When he stood for the Wairoa mayoralty, he told electors the council had become a “secret cult” making decisions behind closed doors and no longer accountable to ratepayers.

“I want to re-engage the community to restore trust and confidence in council decision-making processes,” he said.

In his evidence to the ERA, he said he had been subject to an improper and poorly conducted disciplinary process.

In regard to him holding on to documents, he said the council was being paranoid.

“The tenor of his evidence to the authority was that he sent emails to himself that he knew were going to be required and there was nothing else he needed,” ERA member Natasha Szeto said.

“Mr Mutonhori says that if the authority was to grant the orders sought by the council [to delete the documents], this would have no effect on him because he has ‘already given everything to the ERA’, and consequently ‘it is a hypothetical academic exercise with inconsequential outcome’.”

Mutonhori, who has a 30-year public service career in Zimbabwe and New Zealand, received the New Zealand Planning Institute’s Distinguished Service Award three years ago.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.