Tauranga mayoral candidate Doug Owens is threatening to take the city council and marina to the High Court in a long-running dispute.
Tauranga mayoral candidate Doug Owens is threatening to take the city council and marina to the High Court in a long-running dispute.
Tauranga mayoral candidate Doug Owens is threatening to take the council he wants to lead to court in a years-long marina dispute that has cost ratepayers nearly $70,000.
Owens, via his lawyer Ken Patterson, has threatened to take landowner Tauranga City Council and the Tauranga Marina Society to the High Court for a judicial review.
Both men are candidates in Tauranga’s election, with Owens running for the mayoralty and Patterson for the Matua-Otūmoetai ward.
Owens is one of 560 berth holders at the marina at Sulphur Point. His many allegations have been summarised by the society into four main issues about the refurbishment of J Pier at the Keith Allen Drive marina.
These were that the refurbishment was not carried out as per engineering plans and was unsafe; the society acted contrary to its constitution and agreement with the council; the council has failed in its duties of oversight re J Pier; and the council failed in its duties in the issuing and transfer of berth licences.
The marina’s manager and committee say these have been independently investigated and found to have “no substance” to them.
If the matter progresses to the High Court, Tauranga ratepayers could have to pay the council’s legal costs while berth holders pay the society’s legal costs.
The society has already paid $80,000 to $100,000 dealing with the dispute. The council had spent about $40,000 and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which has also been involved, spent $27,221.50, excluding GST before choosing not to continue investigating the matter.
In June, the marina’s manager and committee updated all marina berth holders on the dispute and the threat of High Court action.
They claimed in an email that Owens’ conduct over the past three years had “caused hurt and humiliation of many people involved with Tauranga Marina Society”.
In their opinion, Owens had challenged the integrity, honesty, and professionalism of others “without any proper factual foundation” and made other “wholly unfounded allegations” against society management.
“The fact that Mr Owens shows no signs of resiling from his allegations is of concern to Tauranga Marina Society.”
They stated the dispute had already been “time-consuming” with the society’s manager and committee spending “many hours dealing with Mr Owens’ complaints”.
Mediation was held in December and failed.
High Court threat
Documents dated May 1 obtained by the Bay of Plenty Times show Owens, through his lawyer, issued the city council and marina society with a draft statement of claim in a proposed application for a judicial review. The statement sought more than 30 declarations including of fraud and unlawful activity.
The council and marina society were given until May 31 to make proposals to rectify the matters raised, or the matter would go to the High Court.
The council and marina society responded, denying the issues raised.
Doug Owens is running for mayor of Tauranga in the 2024 local body election. He is also involved in a dispute with the city council and marina. Photo / Alex Cairns
The marina society said the draft statement of claim had not yet been filed.
The Bay of Plenty Times asked Owens whether he was still pursuing the High Court action and whether he paused the process due to his election campaign.
Tauranga’s election ends on Saturday.
Other questions Owens was asked included what specifically he wanted by pursuing the dispute, if he would continue this legal action if elected mayor, and how he would manage potential conflicts of interest if so.
Greg Prescott, manager of Tauranga Marina Society. Photo / Alex Cairns
Patterson, responding to queries on Owens’ and his behalf, said Owens had raised concerns involving the marina society and the council “and these matters appear to be heading to the High Court”.
He said the draft statement of claim was sent to ask the society and council to discuss the matters further with them “to see if they can be sorted out”.
“There has been an open invitation and multiple requests to both the society and the TCC to try and sort these matters out for years, including a mediation with the society in December 2023,” Patterson said.
“None of our proposals or meetings have resulted in any acceptance by the marina society that they have done anything wrong at all.
“On the contrary, the TMS have consistently refused to provide the information we have requested and the TCC have been the subject of several [Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIMA) requests] which have been largely inconsequential.”
He also suggested that media wished to “somehow damage” his own and Owens’ election efforts. He said media had been approached before about the dispute in the past and, in his view, had taken little interest, until now.
In the circumstances, neither would provide any further comment, he said.
‘No one can really understand what it’s all about’
Marina society manager Greg Prescott told the Bay of Plenty Times the dispute began in late 2019 when all J Pier berth holders were informed of the proposed refurbishment.
“He sort of started this process that he’s got himself involved in, started doing LGOIMAs to council, society, etc, all these sort of things started happening. Then he engaged his lawyer and between the two of them you would get five questions from Mr Patterson on behalf of Doug Owens, then 25 questions back about those five questions and we would try to dissect everything.”
The years since 2019 had been filled with lawyers, other entities and now, the prospect of the High Court.
“It has gone on for quite a long time, unfortunately. I don’t know if an end is in sight,” Prescott said.
In his opinion: “This is the strange part – no one can really understand what it’s all about. It’s pretty bloody crazy.”
Eric Tait, Tauranga Marina Society chairman. Photo / Alex Cairns
Prescott said there was “quite a lot of anger among berth holders”.
Prescott said he believed there was “a massive conflict of interest” in Owens running for mayor while pursuing the dispute with the marina and council. He was concerned that if Owens was successful, he would use his mayoral position to influence a result and if he was not successful, he would take the dispute to the High Court.
“I don’t think the problem is going to go away,” Prescott said.
Marina society chairman Eric Tait said the dispute was having a “pretty devastating” impact on himself and the committee.
“Sometimes when you’re having a shave in the morning, you think ‘why even bother?’.”
Tait said the marina society had spent between $80,000 and $100,000 on legal costs.
“We don’t have the freedom to keep spending our members’ money like this,” he said.
“I’ve asked at two annual general meetings now what is it Mr Owens wants, what he wants to achieve. Unfortunately, he can’t answer that,” Tait claimed.
Tait said members were “angry” the dispute was dragging on.
“If we were a golf club or citizen’s club or bowling club, a member behaving like this would have had his membership removed by now, which is what members would like but our rules and regulations [don’t allow us].”
What the councils say
City council chief financial officer Paul Davidson said the council had twice sought independent advice on Owens’ concerns “and on both occasions, that advice concluded that there was no substance to them”.
The council’s view was this was ultimately a dispute between Owens and the marina society, Davidson said.
He said given Owen’s mayoral campaign, the council was “constrained” in what it could say to media.
“That said, we can confirm that if the matter does proceed to the High Court, council would have no choice but to respond, with any costs involved being funded by ratepayers.
“Should the court concur with our advice that there is no substance to the claims put before it, council would likely seek to recover its costs.”
Tauranga Marina at Sulphur Point. Photo / Alex Cairns
Owens’ concerns had previously included the regional council, which he alleged had not appropriately supervised a resource consent relating to the works at the marina.
Acting chief executive Reuben Fraser said the council “carefully considered and responded to Mr Owens’ complaints”.
He said that included responding to more than 30 emails from the pair over 14 months.
The regional council took external legal advice to ensure it was appropriately addressing Owens’ concerns.
Fraser said costs of $27,221.50, excluding GST, had not increased since August 2022 when the council “decided not to invest further resources into this matter without new substantive evidence being provided by Mr Owens in respect of his allegations”.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
