Defending Michael Laws

The ODT reports:

Media comments about council staff have landed Otago Regional Council deputy chairman Michael Laws in hot water and could see him lose his leadership role.

A code of conduct complaint was lodged by council chief executive Sarah Gardner on August 16 and an investigation is ongoing into whether Cr Laws breached the code.

Cr Laws said the complaint was in regards to comments he made about council staff in two stories that ran in the Otago Daily Times in July of this year.

In a July 21 story on illegal dumping into the Clutha River he said it was “extraordinarily embarrassing” that the council had given advice to a company that it later took enforcement action against for dumping construction waste in the river.

He also said he was unhappy with a lack of transparency between council staff and councillors.

In a July 23 story about a report on public submissions on flow scenarios for the Manuherikia River, Cr Laws said he was annoyed staff had released the report which he described as “bogus” and “crap”.

“It is in relationship to both those articles that the allegation of endangering regional council staff psychologically and physically has been made by the chief executive,” Cr Laws said.

Having a CEO try to silence legitimate criticism of the Council by a Councillor is worrying in the extreme. And whenever you see the claim that some feels endangered merely by criticism you should be suspicious.