Secret golf meeting followed procedure, says council

Wellington City Council had followed correct legal procedures for secretly holding a special meeting over lending financial support to the New Zealand Golf Open, council spokesman Richard MacLean said yesterday.

The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act allowed councils to hold meetings at short notice without advertising them first, in contrast to regular meetings which had to be publicly notified, he said.

The secrecy under which the council pledged $234,000 of ratepayers' money to help underwrite the tournament attended by world No 1 golfer Tiger Woods last week has been criticised in many quarters.

A spokesman for Local Government Minister Sandra Lee said last night that the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the auditor-general or the Ombudsman.

It would become a matter for the minister only if someone called for the council to be sacked.

On Wednesday, Assistant Ombudsman Leo Donnelly said that if the council had followed Local Government Official Information Act rules for holding meetings with the public excluded, it would seem to be within its rights.

Though Wellington City Council and Kapiti District Council approved funding to help underwrite the Golf Open, three Wellington regional authorities - Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua city councils - rejected approaches from Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast to lend financial support.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton also turned down a request for funding. "We already had a lot of challenges [to tourism] presented by September 11 [terrorist attacks] and we wanted to preserve our budget for those activities."

- NZPA

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