A key question attached to latest conduct complaint
“One case involving the Mayor of Whanganui.... arose from complaints from members of the public, but very few complaints have in fact arisen in that manner."
The latest Code of Conduct complaint against Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has raised a key question about whether a member of the public can actually prompt a complaint investigation.
The United Fire Brigades Association [UFBA] wrote to the Invercargill City Council on March 28 believing Clark was in “serious breach” of the council’s Code of Conduct following “bizarre” and “inappropriate” actions at a March event the Mayor was invited to.
That letter led to council CEO Michael Day lodging the Code of Conduct complaint on behalf of the United Fire Brigades Association.
Mayor Clark chose not to be interviewed as part of the investigation carried out by Wellington-based lawyer Linda Clark. He believes the Code of Conduct does not provide scope for members of the public to make complaints.
Previous conduct complaints at the council have been between elected members or the CEO and an elected member.
Mayor Clark did provide a short written statement after seeing the draft findings where he described the commentary on his actions at the event as overly harsh.
Although he maintained the belief that the Code of Conduct did not provide scope for complaints from members of the public.
As part of investigator Linda Clark’s report, it points to the Code being “designed to deal with the behaviour of Elected Members towards each other, the Chief Executive and staff and the media”.
“We take this to mean that when it adopted the Code [in November 2022], Council anticipated that complaints would be made by Elected Members or by the Chief Executive.
“However, unlike the Codes of Conduct adopted by some other councils, there is nothing in the Code that prohibits a member of the public making a complaint.
“This leaves the question open to the discretion of Council.”
Guidance provided by the Office of the Auditor-General says few council codes expressly say whether or not members of the public are permitted to make a complaint under a council’s code.
“One case involving the Mayor of Whanganui, which received a large amount of media coverage, arose from complaints from members of the public, but very few complaints have in fact arisen in that manner.
“Accordingly, many councils have not yet considered whether they would permit a complaint under their code to be made by someone outside the council,” the Office of the Auditor-General says
“Most, when asked, said they probably would. After all, some aspects of the code are likely to relate to the public. The Act requires that, among other things, a code must cover members’ ‘behaviour toward … the public’.”
The councils with Codes of Conduct that expressly allow complaints to be made by members of the public include the Christchurch City Council and the Auckland Council.
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has described the codes as being an “important part of building community confidence in our system and processes”.