A Tauranga City councillor secretly taped fellow councillors' conversations in a lounge used to relax in after meetings, in an attempt to find out who had been leaking information that threatened his political future.
One councillor, Mike Baker, is so outraged that the council voted not to complain to the police about Hayden Evans that he refused to use the lounge for a month.
Instead, he sat on a chair in the corridor and explained the reason for his protest to anyone who asked.
The bugging is the latest in a string of revelations that began on May 26 when Mr Evans was forced to admit he had $11,000 worth of unpaid rates.
It has also been revealed that police escorted Mr Evans from the council back to the station, making him surrender his firearms licence.
Mr Evans, who runs a civil engineering business, said he believed police were acting on what had been interpreted as a threat against the council's intention to lay a pipeline across his rural block at Ohauiti.
Mr Evans left a dictaphone running in his pigeon hole in the councillors' lounge on June 2.
He has defended his actions, saying organised leaks to the public have arisen from inside the lounge.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Bay of Plenty Times
Councillor bugged lounge to spy on his colleagues
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