KEY POINTS:
In an unprecedented move, the Whangarei District Council is threatening councillors and senior staff with legal action in an effort to plug the leaking of confidential items to the media.
The Northern Advocate has carried a number of stories in recent months after being leaked copies of confidential items from council meetings, including that the council was considering selling a piece of land on Whangarei Harbour - the Kaituna Block - to local firm Culham Engineering.
After the paper published that story Mayor Pamela Peters vowed to find out who had leaked the information, saying the leak was a blow to the council's integrity and could scare off investors.
Council chief executive Mark Simpson last month wrote a confidential memo to councillors and senior staff asking them to dob in themselves, or anybody else who had leaked the information.
He said it was unprecedented in his nine years at the helm of the council that he had had to send out such a memo.
In the memo, which ironically was leaked to the Advocate, Mr Simpson says the leak of the Kaituna information was a major concern that could have prejudiced or disadvantaged the council in its negotiations with prospective buyers of the land.
Also, he said, other parties could worry that future business transactions with the council could be compromised should a similar breach of confidentiality occur.
"Anybody who releases information unlawfully in this way is likely to face civil proceedings and may be the subject of legal action under the Public Finance Act 1977, the Secret Commissions Act 1910, the Privacy Act 1993 or the Crimes Act 1961," he says in the memo.
"This issue potentially has an impact on council's business transactions, but it is of even more concern to me as it casts into doubt the ethics and integrity of all those council staff and elected members who were privy to the information."
Mr Simpson said he had been asked to conduct an inquiry into the leak and had written the memo to all councillors and staff who were present at the February 7 meeting where the Kaituna issue was discussed in the confidential section.
The councillors and staff have been asked to respond to the memo and sign an attached form on the issue.
Mr Simpson told the Advocate he made no apologies for the hard line.
He was still waiting for all responses from the councillors and staff before he would say how many had signed the document, how many had not and what further action would be taken.
A spokeswoman for Local Government New Zealand said the organisation was not aware of a council writing a similar memo to councillors and staff over a leak.
However, she said, councils had other mechanisms to deal with leaks.
If it was a staff member it could be done through their employment contract, while councillors had a code of conduct they signed, which a leak could breach.
