Council management are standing by a staff member slammed by the Environment Court for misleading it and local iwi - costing ratepayers $115,000.
In May, the Rotorua District Council was ordered to pay $115,000 in court costs to two Te Arawa hapu - Ngati Pikiao and Ngati Makino - regarding a resource consent process to build a wastewater treatment plant at Lake Rotoma.
A resource consent was granted by the regional council, then appealed by affected parties. The consent was subsequently surrendered by the district council because of an unspecified cultural issue.
The court said the council had ignored advice from its own director of Kaupapa Maori, Mauriora Kingi, and did not complete a proper cultural impact assessment or consult with its Te Arawa Standing Committee. It said council staff also made a false allegation against one of the hapu's preferred independent cultural impact assessors, effectively ruling that person out of the process.
In its decision, the Environment Court was highly critical of senior council planner Mark Buckley and barrister Jim Milne, who is not employed by the council but acted as the council's legal counsel for the project.