Rick Curach has lost his seat on Tauranga City Council. Photo / File
Rick Curach, who has lost his bid for a seventh term on Tauranga City Council, wants to set the record straight about something.
In 2012, his shock admission that he spent about 22 hours a week on council business while taking a $74,000 a year councillor salary spawned headlines andcritical opinion pieces around New Zealand.
Curach, 61, said the "little hiccup" dogged him for years, his words coming back to haunt him again just two weeks ago when they appeared in an attack ad encouraging voters to "flick Rick".
He said it all started with an emailed survey from the Remuneration Authority asking councillors how much time they spent on certain tasks.
He asked council staff for information about time spent in meetings and submitted that.
It turned out his number was much lower than his colleagues, and a request for a discussion in an open workshop followed. Curach, "a stickler for transparency" could hardly refuse.
He believed other councillors also included time spent reading agendas and meeting with constituents in their tallies, which he had not.
Curach said in his last term he worked 40-hour weeks on council duties.