The councillor at the centre of the controversy, Cr Gary Kelliher, has called the allegations a cowardly attack and a "beat up" designed to push an unnecessary, but ongoing, case for commissioners to replace elected councillors at the regional council.
Otago Fish & Game chief executive Ian Hadland wrote to the Office of the Auditor-general at the start of the year asking for an investigation into Cr Kelliher because of his ongoing involvement in water issues in the Manuherikia River.
After an Official Information Act request resulted in more than 900 pages of emails between councillors and others about ORC planning for the river, Mr Hadland said some of the uncovered correspondence showed Cr Kelliher had failed to manage his conflict in the Manuherikia catchment.
Cr Kelliher remained involved in discussions about the Manuherikia despite declaring a conflict of interest and not participating in a major decision relating to the Manuherikia in August, he said.
"I find it disturbing that Cr Kelliher has been able to participate in discussions behind the scenes, despite his clear conflict of interest," Mr Hadland said.
He repeated his concerns in letters to Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Environment Minister David Parker whom he asked to look into the matter.
"I am concerned that [Cr Kelliher] is attempting to work around public interest safeguards and use his position of power as a councillor to influence how water resources may be allocated in future.
"Ultimately, this conduct may undermine public trust in the ORC and in the fair implementation of the Resource Management Act."
At the end of August, ORC staff asked councillors to note proposed minimum flows for the Manuherikia River for the ORC’s upcoming land and water plan — they did not.
Instead, in a 6-4 vote on August 25, councillors asked for more work to be done in the priority river.
Amid the fallout from the August decision, former councillor Marian Hobbs resigned after saying she was among about 1500 people who signed a petition calling on Mr Parker to disband the council and call in commissioners.
Yesterday, Cr Kelliher said he had nothing to hide.
He had not seen the emails that Fish & Game had uncovered, but he had also written published opinion pieces on the issue, which he assumed were saying the same things.
"They [Fish & Game] have not come to me, which to me is incredibly cowardly of them if they had an issue and they wanted to raise it with me," Cr Kelliher said.
ORC chairman Andrew Noone said the Members Interest Act provided direction to councillors about vested interests, the main threshold being that a councillor could not discuss or vote on matters before the council in which they had a pecuniary interest other than one in common with the public.
He said he did not think the emails showed a breach of the Act.
ORC chief executive Sarah Gardner said any conflict of interest, or the appearance of such, was a potential risk to the organisation.
She had provided advice to councillors on conflicts on several occasions, she said.
Mr Parker said the issue was addressed by a 2020 amendment to the RMA that changed how water plans were made.
Panels of specialist water commissioners, overseen by the chief water commissioner would hear proposed plans, Mr Parker said.
This would ensure rigour in the process to apply the new national policy statement on freshwater management, which had the criteria needed to clean up New Zealand rivers, he said.
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Fish & Game should hang their heads in shame. They are responsible for the greatest environmental damage to our country by introducing ferrets, stoats and weasels. The trout they introduced have consumed our native fish to near extinction where they now only thrive in tributaries trout cannot access. F&G have a shameful legacy they prefer not to acknowledge in thier holier than thou preaching to others including this attack on a hard working councillor. Shame on you Ian Hadland.
In this case “a hard working Councillor “ does not equate to a smart working Councillor. If he chooses to ignore the law he is not fit for purpose.
Fact Check - F&G was formed in 1990, well after ferrets, stoats and weasels were introduced to control rabbits back sometime in the 1880s probably. Intensive agriculture, and related activities like irrigation, drainage of wetlands, straightening of rivers, removal of habitat has caused significant declines in both native fish and trout. F&G in their role as advocates for better water quality and habitat's is in fact helping to protect habitats of native fish, and have done much in this regard over the years, like introducing conservation orders on rivers to protect them...
F&G was the continuation of the Acclimatization Societies - inheriting facilities and licensing arrangements - so they can't divest themselves of the consequences of their forebears' activities. The three that peeve me are rabbits, trout, and mallard ducks. I suspect they were also behind Gambusia ... another pet peeve.
At last someone is challenging the behaviour of ORC. Over the last four years ORC has regularly disregarded the Resource Management Act and its own Regional Plans. ORC is now ignoring the local government Members Interest Act which clearly says: “ A councillor cannot discuss or vote on matters before the council in which they have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest other than an interest in common with the public.” What we are seeing in this an other recent activities of ORC appears to be outright corruption? There is a serious need for the Ministers of Local Government and Environment to intervene otherwise they will be just as culpable.
Well done Fish & Game. Some ORC Councillors may be forgiven for their ignorance because they are mainly farmers with no meaningful training in environmental law or management and so they do not fully understand what happens when they break the law! However the Executive and staff are supposed to be experts. The guiding hand of Council is that of the Chief Executive. It is high time that the Council was replaced with Commissioners and the remaining executive took their colleagues lead and resigned; or were replaced by Commissioners.