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Controversial councillor Benedict Ong has been found guilty of breaching the council’s code of conduct for the third time in a “in a public and deliberate manner”.
Cr Ong was suspended from all council committees and subcommittees for nine months from today.
The latest chapter in the Cr Ong saga was thrashed out behind closed doors by the Dunedin City Council today.
Cr Ong left during the meeting’s non-public section and told the Otago Daily Times he had been found to be in breach of the code.
Cr Andrew Simms, who chaired that portion of the meeting, confirmed this in a statement.
The council accepted the findings of an independent report which determined Cr Ong materially breached the code of conduct in a “public and deliberate manner”, he said.
Cr Ong is already suspended from committees and subcommittees until February, following an earlier code of conduct breach.
The punishments periods would overlap and, as it stands, Cr Ong would be reinstated in late July next year.
The suspension does not impact Cr Ong's attendance at full council meetings, Cr Simms said.
“The independent report itself will be kept confidential.”
The ODT’s request for the investigator’s report was being treated as a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request, a council spokesman said.
It is the third such complaint against Cr Ong this year — his fellow councillors previously upheld two complaints about his behaviour, as amounting to serious breaches of the code.
The ODT understands the matter relates to a code of conduct complaint laid by deputy mayor Cherry Lucas in early June over a Facebook post by Cr Ong in May.
It is alleged he referred to matters from a confidential council meeting, relating to legal action by a former council employee, and criticised then council chief executive Sandy Graham in a public forum.
Cr Lucas said the post breached several rules for councillors, including confidentiality requirements.
Cr Ong said he would not to defend himself in the meeting’s non-public section, though he contributed to an, at times, raucous morning session.
Arriving to the meeting late, he did not directly answer the ODT’s questions this morning.
He did repeat an earlier remark, that he refused to engage with the independent investigator appointed to look into the complaint, as he considered it a waste of ratepayer money.
When asked if he would resign if the complaint was upheld, Cr Ong said he had “already stated very clearly I will step down tentatively 31st December 2026”.
Cr Ong said it was a tentative resignation as he had been looking to reduce the costs incurred if he stood down.
He is standing as an independent candidate in the Dunedin electorate at next week’s general election and has said he would resign as councillor on December 31, regardless of the outcome.
However, on Thursday, Cr Ong said he planned to serve out his full council term if he was elected as MP.
“I am not going to force a by-election if I am elected independent MP. I am going to fulfil my duties as city councillor.”
During the meeting, several points of order against Cr Ong were upheld by chairwoman and deputy mayor Cherry Lucas.
One was for a rambling question from Cr Ong, who asked if his plans to dress in a Santa outfit for Dunedin’s Santa Parade amounted to a conflict of interest.
This was upheld as irrelevant.
When Cr Ong asked staff how they had factored his possible electorate win into budget considerations, Cr Lucas told him “this is not a place to electioneer and I don’t think it’s a relevant question in relation to the budget”.
Cr Ong disagreed.
When asked, the council did not confirm the complaint’s nature or say why it had taken more than four months to be considered by councillors.
The meeting agenda said the complaint would be considered behind closed doors for reasons of privacy, effective conduct of public affairs and legal professional privilege.
The first-term councillor has been at the centre of a string of controversies since his election.
In March, he was asked to consider resigning over an email he sent about a council staff member and in May was suspended from council committees for nine months after sharing commercially sensitive information.
Last month, he was trespassed from the University of Otago’s grounds and premises after students complained of unwanted and inappropriate behaviour from Cr Ong.
He dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks.