Wellington Mayor Andy Foster avoids formal censure but told to apologise
13 May, 2021 04:28 AM
5 minutes to read
Wellington City mayor Andy Foster. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Wellington issues reporter, NZ Heraldgeorgina.campbell@nzme.co.nz
Wellington s mayor has been told to apologise after he was found to have breached the council s code of conduct.
Earlier today Wellington City councillors voted to publicly discuss the findings of a code of conduct complaint against Andy Foster.
The complaint, by councillor Jenny Condie, claimed Foster shared potentially defamatory and previously discredited information before a controversial Shelly Bay development vote.
Condie said the mayor called her to his office before the vote to show her information that would change her mind about Shelly Bay.
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
An investigation into a confidential meeting between the mayor and one of the councillors found it breached the elected members Code of Conduct.
While he was asked to make a written apology to those affected, the Council stopped short of censuring him.
The initial complaint against the Andy Foster was laid down by councillor Jenny Condie.
It related to a meeting between the two ahead of a crunch vote in November regarding Shelly Bay - the controversial housing development which Foster opposes.
Condie said the mayor shared notes he had made from a phone call he had had with a former council official, which she alleged was aimed at influencing her vote.
The investigation subsequently revealed Foster tried to give the confidential information to at least two councillors shortly before the vote. The information contained Foster’s notes from a phone conversation in April 2019 with a former staff member, in which that person alleged another former staff member had pressured council officers to deem the narrow Shelly Bay Rd suitable for the development. Review author Hornsby-Geluk recommended Foster be censured for the “inappropriate” conduct and apologise to the former staff member. She found Foster did breach the code, but that the breach was at the “lower end of the scale”. Councillors will vote on the recommendations on Thursday, and councillor Nicola Young plans to request a vote calling for Foster to pay part of the review cost.
Wellington council
Councillor Jenny Condie was stopped from tabling allegations of underhand tactics by mayor Andy Foster ahead of a Shelly Bay land sale vote in November.
If ever there was a chance for the 15 people around the Wellington City Council to start afresh, this was it. Councillor Rebecca Matthews took to Twitter to seemingly label some of her colleagues racist and ignorant. She has since deleted the tweet and said she didn’t mean to label individual people racist. There was thereport that said Mayor Andy Foster should be censured for sharing confidential information with some councillors ahead of a career-defining vote on the controversial $500 million Shelly Bay development.
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