Tauranga City Council and partners - most not named publicly - held a private cocktail party to celebrate the city. Photo / 123rf
Tauranga City Council and partners - most not named publicly - held a private cocktail party to celebrate the city. Photo / 123rf
The Ombudsman has been asked to rule on whether the guest list for a $40,000 private cocktail party co-hosted by Tauranga City Council should continue to be withheld from the public.
It comes as internal emails released to the Bay of Plenty Times show the decision to withhold the list was made by the council’s chief executive.
The invite-only event was held on May 10 and organised by the council and city partners, most of whom the council has refused to name.
The event was considered a “celebration of the city” with the council inviting 150 people. About 160 attended.
The council eventually said the city partners funded the event.
In responses to several Bay of Plenty Times requests, the council has declined to release the guest list, with senior staff citing privacy and “limited” public interest given event costs did not fall on ratepayers.
Emails between council staff and partners released to the Bay of Plenty Times under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act show the decision to withhold the list came from chief executive Marty Grenfell.
The emails show a council staff member highlighting the “high” public interest in releasing the guest list. After further discussions, another staff member stated: “Marty’s view is that the list of invitees should not be released - he’s happy for it to be taken up with the Ombudsman, if it comes to that.”
Internal emails discussing Bay of Plenty Times queries about the guest list and event costs show a draft response appeared to name the organisations that contributed funding but this sentence was missing from the finalised email and redacted in the Official Information response.
In seeking feedback from Grenfell, communications staff stated that if the council was to identify the sponsors, “they should be given a heads up”.
Discussing another draft response to the Bay of Plenty Times, general manager of city developments and partnerships Gareth Wallis asked communications staff and Grenfell if the council was “100% certain” it did not have to release invitees’ names and checking whether it had legal advice.
Wallis highlighted the need for legal advice “because if it comes back that we need to release the names, we’re going to look a bit stupid for having said we can’t release the names, etc”.
Marty Grenfell, chief executive of Tauranga City Council. Photo / Alex Cairns
“And I don’t think individuals get the choice about whether or not they want their names known? I think [it’s] appropriate to release them, or it’s not?”
Communications staff responded, referring to the need to check with the democracy services team and that “once we receive the list we will review and recommend a way forward re releasing or not, the public interest is high on this one so likely leaning toward releasing in some form”.
Another communications staff member stated: “I do think we need to check that our commitment to not releasing names will stand up to Ombudsman scrutiny.”
A response from democracy services team leader Kath Norris was redacted.
Ultimately, communications staff were told to go back to the Bay of Plenty Times “and let them know that Marty said he won’t be releasing the list of invitees, that they can go to the Ombudsman”.
In the 475 pages of communications, the names of city partners, attendees and invitees other than council staff were redacted “for privacy” reasons.
This included an invitee requesting permission to bring a “young man” as a plus-one to “look after me when I get ‘happy’”.
Tauranga's Cargo Shed on Dive Cres is where the city council and city partners held a private cocktail party to celebrate the city. Photo / Alex Cairns
In releasing the communications to the Bay of Plenty Times, acting chief executive Barbara Dempsey said some information had been withheld to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions in council duties. All other redactions were made for privacy reasons.
“We have also withheld one document … to maintain legal professional privilege,” Dempsey said.
The Bay of Plenty Times has referred the matter to the Ombudsman’s office.
Eight entities considered “key sponsors” were invoiced $5000 each for their “contribution” to the event, which at one point was proposed to have a Bridgerton or Winter Wonderland theme with a red carpet.
A leaflet obtained by the Bay of Plenty Times, with the same imagery as the event invites, offered “huge thanks to our city supporters”, listing the council, Carrus, Priority One, L.T McGuiness, Willis Bond, Watts & Hughes Construction, Quayside, TwentyTwo, Panorama Towers, Urban Task Force, Tauranga Business Chamber and noted thanks also to Bay Catering.
The Tauranga city celebration event leaflet supplied to the Bay of Plenty Times by an attendee, and a redacted leaflet released by Tauranga City Council in response to an Official Information request.
The leaflet was provided by an event guest and appeared to be the same as one provided in the Official Information response - except the council redacted all other entities except for Bay Catering.
The council was asked whether these leaflets were the same and if these were the city partners the council had refused to identify. A spokesman said the council had nothing to add.
The menu included canapes before a three-course dinner with mains of Angus beef striploin, dauphinoise, confit shallot, bordelaise sauce and chive oil; and market fish, ginger and coconut curry, smashed golden kūmara and fragrant herb salad.
The Bay of Plenty Times was invited to attend the event but declined after the council restricted reporting activities.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
