Mayor apologises: 'I hope that puts that issue to rest'

“Certainly in relation to you as my colleagues, I openly apologise for breaching the Code of Conduct and the expectations you would have for my role."

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has apologised for breaching the council’s Code of Conduct.

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Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has publicly apologised for breaching the council’s Code of Conduct which followed a speech at a United Fire Brigades Association event in Invercargill in March.

United Fire Brigades Association CEO Bill Butzbach alleged Clark mocked, disrespected, degraded, offended, and embarrassed its members, staff, and other guests when he attended an event held in Invercargill on March 16.

An independent investigation found Clark had breached the council’s Code of Conduct and in June the council voted on various resolutions in relation to the matter.

One included that Clark hand over his public engagements to other elected members for the remainder of the term, although Mayor Clark has since indicated he would not do that.

Another resolution was that Clark publicly apologise at a council meeting.

At the start of Tuesday’s meeting Cr Ian Pottinger raised a point of order asking if Mayor Clark would be making that public apology as per the council’s resolution.

Clark responded: “Thank you very much for your inquiry, I’ll decide on that later on.”

Later in the meeting Clark did take a moment to publicly apologise when he read the following statement: “I’ve already apologised to the association in relation to the Code of Conduct in relation to the United Fire Brigades Association and Miss X as well, given she wasn’t actually the MC of the event, she had nothing to do with the running of it, but I’m not prepared to make an issue of that.

“Certainly in relation to you as my colleagues, I openly apologise for breaching the Code of Conduct and the expectations you would have for my role and I apologise for the negative impact it has had on my colleagues, on the council’s standing within our community, and the wider community.

“I hope that puts that issue to rest.”

A second Code of Conduct complaint against Mayor Clark - lodged by Cr Pottinger and Cr Ria Bond - was dealt with last week.

That complaint was in relation to Clark’s television interview with comedian Guy Williams on his New Zealand Today programme which screened in March.

An independent investigation found Clark had also breached the council’s Code of Conduct on that matter.

On the back of that, the council also resolved that Clark be asked to offer up a “sincere” public apology at a council meeting.

That is still to come.