Tauranga City councillor Steve Morris warned Wellington City Council elected members of his concerns regarding a review into the city's governance. Photo / File
Tauranga City councillor Steve Morris warned Wellington City Council elected members of his concerns regarding a review into the city's governance. Photo / File
The official who led the independent review into Tauranga's council has been criticised by an ousted councillor in a warning letter to Wellington's warring elected members.
Tauranga councillor Steve Morris emailed Wellington's mayor and councillors to complain about the process used for an independent review into Tauranga's governance, which heclaimed raised "serious natural justice concerns".
Morris emailed the elected members at 11.24pm on February 25, the day Wellington mayor Andy Foster announced local government expert Peter Winder would review the council's governance. At the time, Foster said he believed the public's belief in elected members had been shaken and eroded.
In October, Winder - a former Kaipara commissioner/Crown manager and chief executive of Local Government New Zealand - began chairing an independent observer team that examined issues between Tauranga City Council elected members.
His team's report was sent to Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who then decided to replace Tauranga's elected members with Government-appointed commissioners. The commission took over in February.
Winder told the Bay of Plenty Times he was aware of Morris' email and what it contained but he had no intention of embarking on a "he said, she said" through the media.
"Steve is entitled to his view, I do not share it," he said. He declined to comment further.
Morris' email, obtained by the Bay of Plenty Times through the Local Government Information and Meetings Act, was offered to Wellington's mayor and councillors as "a heads up of our experience".
Reviewer Peter Winder during his presentation of a report into Tauranga City Council's governance, in which he recommended a Crown manager be appointed. Photo / File
In the email, Morris said Winder refused to provide any assistance or guidance to Tauranga councillors.
"He recommended a Crown manager in his public report and then changed his mind later, privately, and wrote to the minister recommending a commission. This was completely unbeknownst to council and another material breach of his terms of reference."
Councillors were "completely blind" to this when they wrote a letter responding to Mahuta's intention to appoint a commission, Morris said.
"This raises serious natural justice concerns and if Mr Winder was part of a professional body, a complaint would have been made to it about his conduct in this matter," Morris said.
Morris said Winder "refused to allow us to see the report and provide feedback prior to publication", which would have been "professional courtesy". Such a gesture would not have impinged on Winder's ability to write an independent report, Morris said.
He said as a result, "a majority of council hold the view that there were a number of significant errors throughout the report which impacted on the conclusions and recommendations offered."
Morris also complained that the report was "dropped on us" the night before the November 17 meeting where it was presented in public.
In his view: "This is poor professional and governance practice."
Winder's report on the Tauranga council's governance was scathing, highlighting the deep internal turmoil among elected members which was considered to have prevented the council from governing appropriately.
The report recommended the council request help from the Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta by asking that a Crown manager and observer be appointed.
Wellington City mayor Andy Foster called for an independent review into the city's governance following a similar process in Tauranga. Photo / File
At that meeting, Morris questioned the quality of Winder's report referring to "at least 30" errors or minor spelling issues and offering to go through them line by line to correct them.
Morris, with councillors John Robson, Bill Grainger, Andrew Hollis, Dawn Kiddie, and Kelvin Clout then carried a vote to wait for three days before determining whether to action the recommendation.
In his email, Morris claimed that, in his view, Winder "took this personally". Despite the council's eventual narrow vote to appoint a Crown manager, Minister Mahuta announced she sought to bring in commissioners and confirmed that move in December.
Morris ended the email by wishing Wellington "a better outcome" than what, in his view, Tauranga had been "burdened with".
None of Wellington's elected members responded to Morris' email.
The Bay of Plenty Times sought further comment from Morris on the letter and asked whether his views had changed. He declined to comment.
Morris now holds a position in the steering group of a newly established Tauranga Ratepayers' Alliance. He is joined by fellow ousted city councillors Clout, Hollis, Kiddie and former mayor Greg Brownless who in 2019 was unsuccessful in his reelection bid.
The review on Wellington City Council was released on April 22, in which Winder found that while there was poor governance, the council was still making decisions. He recommended greater support and resource for the mayor and councillors and to replace portfolios with committees.
* Tauranga's councillors still keep their titles until the next election in 2022, but in name only. They can no longer act in their roles and have no official responsibilities.
