A Dunedin community board member has apologised after claims they used a public lecture to deliver a diatribe against the Dunedin City Council and its staff.
The contents of the August 22 talk in Dunedin led to a complaint from a member of the council's staff, who was in the audience, Mayor Dave Cull confirmed yesterday.
The complaint was considered during the non-public part of Monday's full council meeting, and details were released to the Otago Daily Times yesterday following an official information request.
However, the identity of the board member, the staff member who complained and where the lecture was held all remain secret. That was to protect the privacy of the staff member who complained, Mr Cull said.
A partly blacked-out report prepared by Mr Cull for Monday's meeting said the matter had been resolved through mediation, after an apology by the board member.
Mr Cull told the ODT the apology was sent by the board member to the organiser of the lecture, but addressed the audience.
It was enough to satisfy Mr Cull the matter did not need to be referred to the council's conduct committee, of which he was chairman.
Because of that, Mr Cull's report also came to no conclusions about the facts behind the complaint, although there appeared to be "clearly . . . a prima facie case", he said. "Certainly, the complaint indicated that it was reasonably serious.
That's the allegation." In his report, Mr Cull said the complainant believed the board member's talk "appeared to be disparaging of both staff and other elected members", and may have breached rules about confidential information.
Both were potential breaches of council standing orders, which governed the conduct of the city's elected representatives.
Those rules included one requiring elected representatives to "avoid publicly criticising any employee in a manner that reflects on the competence and integrity of the employee", and "respect the impartiality and integrity of council staff".
Others were designed to prevent elected representatives from disclosing confidential informatproper authority.
