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Thames Coromandel mayor Len Salt says he’s had a positive response from around the country after using an expletive in a reply to an email.
Salt said his email, sent on July 10, 2023, was in response to the “aggression” being directed at council staff and elected members on an almost daily basis.
The initial email, which came from a person going by the name Anthony-John, asked for the personal details and addresses of council staff members.
The Waikato Herald has seen the email that sparked Salt’s reply. It accuses the council of “extremely unlawful activity” but does not go into any specifics. It labels the council as a “fictious [sic] entity” before the author goes on to demand the names and addresses of staff members within the council.
The writer also suggested the mayor was “an accomplice to these unlawful actions” by failing to supply the names and addresses of council staff members.
The email is signed by Anthony-John but has a different name in the ‘From’ field of the email.
In response Salt said; “My official response as Mayor of Thames Coromandel District Council is this - Go f*** yourself, kind regards, Len”.
The mayor's email response.
Salt told the Waikato Herald the email that sparked the controversy “triggered a much wider conversation about the levels of aggression directed at staff and elected members on an almost daily basis”.
He said he’d had a positive response to the way he replied to the email, “including from many mayors and elected members, past and present, as well as residents and ratepayers from across the country.
“This is happening on multiple levels. Social media, emails, face-to-face contact across customer service counters, in council meetings and community board meetings, in public information sessions organised by council staff and in public meetings attended by councillors and elected members.”
Salt’s email reply was sent to media by Steve Hart, who in 2022 ran for the Thames Coromandel mayoralty, which was won by Salt.
When contacted by the Waikato Herald, Hart said “such behaviour is comprehensibly unacceptable.
“How can a public official appointed by the people remain in office when this is how he communicates?”
Steve Hart.
Hart told the Waikato Herald Minister of Local Government Simeon Brown should step in over the matter.
“Ask Simeon Brown if this is what is now acceptable or not and what he is prepared to do about it. As far as I’m concerned, personally, I find it abhorrent.”
Salt said he had no further comment on what Hart had said.
