Mayor cleared after using others' names in submissions

An investigation by senior staff on his own council has cleared Far North District Mayor Wayne Brown of any wrongdoing after he lodged public submissions to a council plan under other people's names.

Mr Brown filed a total of six submissions to the Far North District Council's long-term community plan this year in the name of his wife, Toni, employee Wayne Franks, and two business associates, Sean Kennedy and Eddie Aicken.

The submission forms lodged by the mayor did not reveal he was filing them on behalf of other people, but under current Far North council rules there is no requirement for anyone to disclose this, or even sign the submission form.

Mr Brown maintained he had done nothing wrong and that the people named in the submissions were aware of what he had done in their names.

The submissions all supported a change to a capital value rating system to replace the existing Far North system of land value rating.

They also called for a change to uniform annual charge rating on some properties in subdivisional developments and included comments on several other local issues.

When the matter was aired publicly earlier this month however, a Kaitaia-based councillor, Ian Bamber, raised concerns about whether the practice was ethical, and with support from a Kaikohe colleague, Laurie Byers, the pair succeeded in getting a top-level council investigation launched into Mr Brown's actions.

Mr Brown has been a strong vocal supporter of a move to change the Far North district rating system from land value to capital value, although recent ratepayer submissions to the same planning document show overwhelming opposition to doing so.

When plan submissions closed in April, just 92 favoured capital value while 872 supported retaining a land value system.

Mr Brown, a Mangonui resident, had drawn attention to the submission issue himself when he wrote about what he had done in a regular mayoral column appearing in a local, Kaitaia-based community newspaper, the Northland Age.

He said the council had missed an opportunity to find out more about who actually makes submissions, and whether "the hordes of exactly the same submissions" should be in the name of a bigger organisation.

The submission form did not ask if the submitter represented who they were submitting for, nor did it ask if the submitter was even a ratepayer.

There was also no requirement to sign the form, Mr Brown said.

He wrote that "business associates of mine" had asked him to submit (to the plan) on their behalf.

The submissions wanted the council to reduce its costs so that it could still spend locally on contractors, suppliers, professionals and workers.

The senior staff inquiry into Mr Brown's actions reached its conclusion at a council planning meeting in Kaikohe yesterday.

Council chief executive David Edmunds said "quite extensive inquiries" by council staff confirmed that the people whose names were on the submission forms involved knew submissions were being made on their behalf.

They appeared to be comfortable with that, he said.

There are no rules under local government legislation requiring detailed disclosure of the identity of people making submissions to council planning documents.

- NZPA