Dunedin City Councillors are to be warned against conflicts of interest at every meeting, just weeks after the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) cleared two councillors of voting for funding that would help their businesses.
Councillors Kate Wilson and Richard Thomson, both of whom are part of Mayor Dave Cull’s Greater Dunedin grouping, voted on a $400,000 events fund to attract concerts and conventions to the city. Cr. Wilson owns a Middlemarch café which she said would benefit from such events, and Cr. Thomson owns a shop in Dunedin. He said that last year’s Elton John concert raised his turnover by 80 percent.
The DCC’s Governance Manager Sandy Graham referred their decision to the OAG in January to check its legality. The OAG decided that the councillors had not run afoul of the law because the benefits they received from big events were similar to those received by the rest of the public. Cr. Thomson said the report wasn’t necessary, “as the legislation is pretty clear and Kate and I are both familiar with it.”
Architectural consultant and blogger Elizabeth Kerr has criticised the decision. Ms Kerr has previously urged readers of her What if? Dunedin blog to “go to it” and make more complaints to the OAG themselves. Despite the OAG’s response, she maintains that the decision was wrong and that “Councillors Kate Wilson and Richard Thomson should be DUMPED.”
The DCC has now added an agenda item for all meetings telling councillors to “stand aside” when decisions might impact their private interests. A voluntary register of interests is also due to be set up for councillors to announce their pecuniary interests. Ms Graham says the change is part of the council’s new minute-keeping software system, and has nothing to do with bloggers’ complaints.
Councillors counselled
