Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has been sent a letter of censure for his actions. Photo / File
Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has been sent a letter of censure for his actions. Photo / File
A Lower Hutt councillor has refused to apologise for serious breaches of the code of conduct, citing legal advice that the council overstepped when assigning penalties.
Hutt City councillor Chris Milne was given two weeks - until the end of today - to apologise for his actions and acknowledge they were serious, but said he would not be apologising "under duress and threats".
Milne was ordered to apologise after an investigation found he made material breaches of the council's code of conduct- and that his actions could be detrimental to the council's reputation, bringing it into disrepute.
One was about a potential land deal that could result in money being redirected into Mitchell Park Hutt Valley Tennis Facility.
Milne's wife is the president of Hutt Valley Tennis, but neither have a pecuniary interest in the organisation.
Milne rang a council officer who told the investigation the councillor tried to encourage him in a quite "bullish and forceful" manner to bring a formal proposal before council as soon as possible.
But Milne earlier said it was not true he tried to influence the council officer, with whom he has had a good working relationship for many years.
"Anyone who knows Bruce [the officer] and I, would know the idea that I could boss Bruce around is fanciful."
Milne said he was only checking on where things were at.
On another occasion, Milne rang Waste Management's Lower North Island general manager David Howie during a live tender for the council's waste collection services.
Howie told the investigation he began to feel uncomfortable about the conversation getting close to crossing the boundaries.
It found Milne's call was inappropriate while there was a live tender process and risked Howie gleaning information that potentially gave Waste Management an advantage over other prospective tenderers.
Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry sent councillor Chris Milne a letter of censure for his actions. Photo / Georgina Campbell
But Milne said in his defence that was a "long bow to draw" and almost anything could be constructed out of the word "potentially".
He said his actions were driven by concerns from members of the public about biased consultation over the council's waste collection services.
Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry has sent a letter of censure to Milne for the breaches.
"Your conduct, and response to attempts to resolve it, was not becoming of your experience and seniority on council," Barry wrote.
"It risks setting a poor example to other elected members, as does your response to other issues raised."
Barry told Milne it was disappointing the matter had reached this point, and it was a "salient reminder" of the standards and values set out in the code of conduct.
The penalties decided by council included that Milne give an "unqualified" public apology which must be acceptable by Barry and other chairs of standing committees.
The apology must acknowledge his actions were serious, in breach of the code of conduct, were wrong, and would not be repeated.
Along with the apology, Milne has been ordered to pay $16,500 for the external costs of the investigation.
He will only have access to council staff via the chief executive for the rest of the financial year, and will have to undergo training to address the issues the report identified.
But the penalties included the order that Milne make his apology by October 23.
This afternoon, Milne sent a letter to council stating its resolution was invalid because it imposed multiple penalties on him.
He said the council could only impose one penalty, and that the letter of censure could be treated as that penalty.
He described the council process as a "show trial", and said his lawyer had advised him he could challenge the findings through judicial review.
Milne said the penalties were "vindictive" and criticised the "dysfunctionality" of the council.
"Your threat that if I did not apologise I would lose two committee/board positions is odd," he wrote.
"I undertake those roles as a service to the city. I certainly would never agree to apologise under duress and threats in order to keep them. If council insists on removing me from these roles I will welcome the freed up time with a clear conscience, sorry only that I will have reduced capacity to protect my city from poor governance.
"I cannot apologise for doing my duty conscientiously. It would let down all the people who rely on me to stand up for them in council, for honest local government."
Milne's legal advice, provided to the Herald, states council also cannot enforce a cost reimbursement decision.
"The Auditor-General has stated that councils cannot impose monetary penalties on councillors for breach of a code of conduct. There is no case law reporting a successful enforcement of costs," the letter said.
The Local Government New Zealand code of conduct template does not provide for councils to seek cost reimbursements, but that provision was added by amendment in 2016.
Councillor Milne himself was quoted as supporting the amendment, saying it would "round off the code nicely".
If he does not make the apology, the council has ordered he be removed from the Hutt City Council's audit and risk subcommittee and Seaview Marina Ltd Board.
After reading Milne's letter, Mayor Barry said the public expected elected members to own up, apologise and learn from their experience after making a mistake.
"Frankly, the lack of remorse shown by councillor Milne and his failure to front up and apologise reflects a pattern of behaviour that not only fails to meet the standards set out in our code of conduct, but also falls well short of our community's expectation," he said.
A council spokesman said they had no concerns about the legal advice and were confident in the decision that was made.
