Cromwell Community Board member Robin Dicey has received a warning about breaching parts of the Central Otago District Council's Code of Conduct, but says he thinks he did "nothing wrong'' and it is his right as an elected member to monitor the community.
Mr Dicey was given the warning in April for an incident that occurred last year, when he went on to private land owned by River Terrace Developments, opposite the Highlands Motorsport Park corner, near Cromwell.
The land is the subject of a private plan change application to rezone the land to allow an 840-house development there.
When contacted by the Otago Daily Times, Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said a complaint about Mr Dicey was made by a contractor working on the land that was subject to the Plan Change 13 application.
Mr Cadogan said the complaint was "serious enough to instigate an investigation'' of possible breaches of the council's Code of Conduct and he convened a committee of council, comprising himself, a councillor and a Justice of the Peace. The decision of that committee was emailed to Mr Dicey on April 16.
"In essence the decision was that, based on his own admissions, Mr Dicey had breached parts of the Code of Conduct and that I, as Mayor, warned him that his behaviour was a breach,'' Mr Cadogan said.
Mr Dicey told the Otago Daily Times he had gone on to the River Terrace Developments land "to find out what was going on'' and had approached a bulldozer driver on-site and asked him to induct Mr Dicey on to the site.
The driver said no, and he then left the site, Mr Dicey said.
He said he thought he had done "nothing wrong'' by going on to the site, and had done similar things before, saying it was his job as a board member to monitor issues.
"How do I do my monitoring if I can't do things like that?''
Mr Cadogan said that being an elected member did not give a person extra rights, such as being able to enter private property without authority.
"It does not matter whether that property is the site of a contentious subdivision or a citizen's back yard. To me, elected members do not gain special rights, but actually gain increased responsibility to abide by the laws, rules and norms of society''.
The CODC has reviewed and renewed its Code of Conduct, following a template developed by Local Government New Zealand.
Council chief executive Sanchia Jacobs said at last week's full council meeting the new code was considerably clearer and provided a clearer framework around the procedure required in the event of a complaint.
