Review of sacking made public today

Mark Simpson

The outcome of a review of the circumstances around Whangarei District Council chief executive Mark Simpson's sacking of his assistant Jan Walters for signing the nomination form of mayoral candidate Stan Semenoff, and Mr Simpson's executive assistant Ford Watson being allowed to help mayoral candidate Warwick Syers, is due to be released today.

The review was carried out by three councillors - Acting Mayor Phil Halse, Jeroen Jongejans and John Williamson - and independent chairman Auckland lawyer Simon Stokes. Ms Walters was not spoken to as part of the review.

The outcome of the review was to be put to a full council meeting today and Mr Halse said the meeting would be open to the public.

Meanwhile, Ms Walters has raised a personal grievance over her sacking, claiming the dismissal was unjustified.

Mr Simpson used alleged breaches of the council's code of conduct and its electoral protocols for employees that was formulated in June for the dismissal.

The protocols say it is important for all council employees to remain politically neutral at all times in their dealings with elected members and the public. It is not appropriate and is not acceptable conduct for employees to obviously align themselves or support candidates.

Council employees may not take part in political campaigns without the chief executive's approval and any breaches of the protocols could result in disciplinary action.

But Ms Walters is claiming the council's protocols breach both the Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993, and also prevented her from exercising her democratic rights under the Local Electoral Act 2001. Her claim is that those rights can only be circumscribed by an Act of Parliament.

She is seeking compensation believed to be in the tens of thousands. The matter is likely to go to mediation and, if Ms Walters is successful in her claims, any compensation would be paid for by the council.

The review has been criticised by another mayoral candidate, Crichton Christie, who said the panel lacked independence and he wanted a "fully independent" review that did not involve any councillors.