Source: Radio New Zealand
Dunedin City councillor Benedict Ong said he had no plans to resign. Tess Brunton / RNZ
A Dunedin City Councillor has defended leaking a confidential email about a fresh code of conduct complaint against him to reporters.
First-term councillor Benedict Ong is accused of disclosing confidential information in emails copied to journalists last week.
Ong was found to have seriously breached the code in March because of an email he sent to the council’s chief executive and reporters criticising a council staff member.
He was sanctioned at a council meeting on 25 March and asked to resign by his colleagues.
Another complaint, filed by council chief executive Sandy Graham, was emailed to Ong on Wednesday afternoon.
Graham advised she had lodged a code of conduct complaint against him over two emails sent on 20 April and 21 April, alleging he disclosed confidential information to the media understood to relate to a potential hotel development discussed at a public excluded part of a council meeting.
“Please note that given the nature of the complaint, this matter is to be treated as confidential until such time as the investigator has reviewed the material,” Graham said.
“A failure to respect confidentiality at this point in the process is likely to constitute a further breach of the code of conduct.
“The reasons for confidentiality are to protect council’s legal and commercial position given the potential liability and commercial loss that has been created by your emails.”
Ong forwarded the email to reporters and council staff within minutes.
“This is a well-demonstrated and publicly seen falsehood from you once again and I am happy to publicly demonstrate this again,” he wrote.
A short time later, Ong sent a second email saying the code of conduct complaint was “a continuation of the false attacks against me at every opportunity”.
“It is well-known and widely publicly reported that I am barred from council meetings with executive leadership, the mayor and other council meetings apart from the public council meeting. I would highlight this again and that I have not been privy to information that I am blocked and barred from,” he said.
A council spokesperson said the matter had been referred to independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg and the council would be making no further comment while the investigation was underway.
Ong told RNZ he stood by his decision to leak the code of conduct complaint email.
“As a publicly-elected member, to have a public code of conduct complaint once again falsely put forth as what I see as a political attack against a public elected member, that is for our public community to know,” he said.
“There may very well be one more code of conduct complaint from the council chief executive for my sharing her code of conduct complaint against me.”
Ong said he would not consider resigning.
“I am serving our community and it is based on the will of our community that I will continue to serve,” he said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
