Invercargill City Councillor Nobby Clark has today publicly apologised for his comments made during a council committee meeting in August, which resulted in a code of conduct complaint against him.

He read out his apology to the chief executive Clare Hadley at a Performance, Policy and Partnership committee meeting this afternoon (December 8).

He also apologised to his other council colleagues. After his apology, Cr Clark, Mrs Hadley and Cr Ian Pottinger withdrew from the meeting.

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Cr Pottinger laid the complaint against Cr Clark in August, after he became concerned by Cr Clark’s comment about the chief executive during a Performance, Policy and Partnership committee meeting on August 11.

During the August meeting, Cr Clark said: “You’re saying, chair, that the chief executive is giving a truthful situation and I don’t believe that is so, so I have the right to question that.”

Cr Pottinger said he believed it was completely unacceptable for a councillor to make statements criticising the chief executive in public in any circumstances.

Independent investigator Robert Buchannan found Cr Clark had breached council's code of conduct, which states – among other things - that elected members and the chief executive must treat all employees with courtesy and respect and avoid publicly criticising an employee. 

Mr Buchannan noted Cr Clark had asked for the complaint to be considered in the context of a wider issue relating to former councillor Toni Biddle. 

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At the time, the chief executive had laid a separate code of conduct complaint against Cr Biddle. 

The usual process is to first refer code of conduct complaints to the chief executive, however in this case the chief executive was the complainant so she referred it to the next level up – the Performance, Policy and Partnership committee.

Cr Biddle said she was concerned about the natural course of justice, having not been made personally aware of the complaint before reading about it in the media and then finding it on the August committee meeting agenda. 

She moved the chief executive's complaint be brought into the public session of the meeting.

Cr Clark explained he had asked to speak to Cr Biddle’s motion in August because he wanted to support Cr Biddle in questioning how and why the complaint had been referred to the committee. 

Mr Buchannan said that it was clear from Cr Clark's notes that he thought that a complaint involving such senior personnel about events at a committee meeting should have gone to the full council and not to another committee.

Despite Cr Clark saying he had chosen his words carefully, to avoid making a direct accusation that the chief executive had been lying, Mr Buchannan said Cr Clark nevertheless accepted he had breached the code’s obligation to avoid publicly criticising an employee.

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Cr Clark said today he he fully accepted the findings of Mr Buchannan’s report.

“I’ve got no issues with the work done by Robert Buchannan and thought it was quite outstanding, nor with any of his conclusions," he said.

On reflection he should have challenged the issues by way of a point of order, he said.

“I wish to offer an apology to Clare and to my colleagues who may have been upset by the comments that I made at that meeting in August,” Cr Clark said.

Cr Lesley Soper moved that Cr Clark also give a written apology, given the “seriousness of the complaint”.

Despite being supported by councillors Alex Crackett, Rebecca Amundsen, Graham Lewis, all other councillors voted against it and her motion was lost. 

The code of conduct report was then accepted and carried.