Confusion around conflict of interest rules ahead of big decisions for Otago regional councillors appears to have cleared.
Emails obtained by the Otago Daily Times show Otago Regional Council staff have been considering potential conflicts for councillors deciding on rules in the forthcoming land and water plan since at least late last year.
Staff remained unclear when potentially conflicted councillors should and should not be part of the discussion of the land and water plan as recently as May.
And in an email in June chief executive Richard Saunders said chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson and deputy chairman Cr Lloyd McCall were "a little bit lost" as to the council’s proposed process.
Nevertheless, councillors who responded to the ODT yesterday said the process was in fact a straightforward one and the advice they had received on the matter had been clear.
In December, policy and science general manager Anita Dawe asked her staff to pull together a list of areas where councillors might be conflicted.
"We are thinking ahead to whether councillors may have a conflict of interest around particular matters associated with the [land and water plan].
"It would be useful to have a list of matters that councillors will be asked to decide rules on and it would be useful to set those out."
Ms Dawe’s suggestions included setting rules on dairy farming, including potentially areas where no more dairying can occur; setting rules on taking and using water, in particular, providing direction on how water may be used; and setting rules on forestry, including requiring consent for parts of the forestry cycle.
In May, as staff were preparing to shift the discussion from region-wide topics in the plan to detailed provisions at a catchment level, policy and planning manager Fleur Matthews expressed staff concern about councillor conflicts in an email to the council’s legal adviser on the matter.
"It’s not clear to us when the ‘rubber hits the road’ in terms of when councillors should and shouldn’t be part of the discussion," she said.
In June, governance, culture and customer general manager Amanda Vercoe wrote to Crs Robertson and McCall as well as Mr Saunders to say it would be a good time to touch base with councillors again on potential conflicts of interest related to the plan "to see how they wish to manage these as we approach this next phase".
There were a few different options, she said.
Councillors could not participate in discussions or decisions where there might be a conflict of interest or seek a declaration, or exemption, from the Office of the Auditor General to participate.
If councillors wanted to seek declarations, or exemptions, legal advice was available to help put those applications together, she said.
Mr Saunders replied to say Crs Robertson and McCall felt a "little bit lost" as they had already shared detailed information with the council’s lawyer and understood the applications for declarations or exemptions to already be under way.
"They are wondering why this wasn’t done as it feels like they are now back at square one."
Last week, in response to the ODT’s official information request, Mr Saunders said under the Local Authorities Act 1968, councillors were responsible for managing their own interests.
They were also required to publicly disclose their interests in the council’s register of interests.
Mr Saunders confirmed councillors had been working with external legal counsel and the Office of the Auditor-general to manage potential conflicts of interest in relation to decision-making and discussion required for the land and water plan.
"For some councillors, submissions are likely to be made to the OAG in relation to their interests.
"It is the OAG’s role to make any determinations around this.
"Once the OAG has received any submissions from councillors, and made their determinations, information will be made public, as occurred in 2020 when these determinations became available."
