Former West Coast Regional Council chairman Allan Birchfield has been censured as a result of a formal inquiry into an allegation he leaked details of the former chief executive's employment.
In a closed-door extraordinary meeting this morning, councillors considered two separate code of conduct issues.
One arose after Birchfield accused Remuneration and Employment Committee chairman Frank Dooley of assault during a closed-door all-council interview panel convened in May for the current chief executive Darryl Lew.
At the same time, Birchfield accused chairman Peter Haddock of exercising poor judgment in failing to control the situation.
The other code of conduct breach arose after Councillor Dooley blew the whistle on Birchfield, leaking a legal letter to the council on the employment status of previous chief executive Heather Mabin, who left the council in June.
The confidential letter was subsequently the basis of a media article by Newsroom.
For today's code of conduct hearing, all three councillors were given the opportunity to give their version of events.
However, Birchfield arrived late and did not enter the meeting until nearly an hour later.
After two hours, the outcome was disclosed to the media.
Councillor Haddock said the councillors collectively were disappointed at what had occurred but "could not sack Councillor Birchfield" from council altogether as he had been democratically elected.
"We have acted decisively and within the power available to us. Actions such as these are unacceptable," Haddock said.
The incident at the interview panel hearing had been investigated by an independent barrister who concluded that "no assault occurred".
Haddock said the allegation by Birchfield had had an impact on Dooley.
"This outcome clears his name as no wrongdoing occurred."
Haddock also expressed thanks to Dooley for his "full co-operation" in the process and his "hard work and diligence" as a councillor.
Meanwhile, the complaint by Dooley alleging the leak of confidential information by Birchfield was also investigated by an independent barrister, who found "on the balance of probabilities" that Birchfield did leak confidential information to the media.
This was "a clear breach" of the council's code of conduct.
As a result, the council had resolved today to remove Birchfield from all committees and public excluded parts of those committee meetings until the council was satisfied "that trust has been restored".
Haddock hinted that they had wanted to remove Birchfield altogether but were unable to do so under the Local Government Act.
"The member must also agree to cease the behaviour and tender an apology to the previous chief executive, Heather Mabin."
Neither Dooley nor Birchfield made any further comment when invited to do so in the open part of the meeting.
Haddock said the matters addressed by the hearing were "between councillors" and did not reflect on the hard work of staff and the "ongoing success of council" in the delivery of its work programmes.
By Brendon McMahon, Local Democracy Reporting
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
SHARE ME