Mayor wants cash back
Horowhenua’s mayor is seeking more than $24,000 reimbursement from the district council to pay for a building report he chose to fund.
In November, at his first meeting as Horowhenua District mayor, Michael Feyen said he would pay for an independent engineer’s report to ensure the safety of the council building in Levin.
Feyen has publicly questioned the building’s safety in the event of an earthquake, despite two reports from 2014 and 2016 determining it as safe.
At the meeting, Feyen said he would pay for the report, if necessary.
Since then, Feyen had the building inspected again and is now seeking reimbursement of $24,800, as well as legal fees, from the council. Speaking to the Manawatu Standard on Friday, Feyen said he wanted to reiterate he would only pay ‘‘if necessary’’.
‘‘We will see what the value of the report is.’’
He said the report covered a seismic and structural inspection of the building.
The Standard has not seen a copy of this report, commissioned by Feyen and carried out by Structural Concepts, or an earlier report he paid for by Koru VSL.
Neither Feyen nor council chief executive David Clapperton would release the latest report or speak in depth about its contents.
Each said the other should release it.
The council has also refused to say whether it would reimburse Feyen for the report.
In a statement, Clapperton said he received an email from Feyen’s lawyer on March 15 highlighting issues raised in the structural engineering report by Structural Concepts. Clapperton said the report differed with the two previous reports from 2014 and 2016.
As a result, the council asked the engineers behind the first two reports to work through the differences with Structural Concepts.
The report was owned by Feyen and external parties were unable to comment on its details, Clapperton said.
‘‘However, given our headquarters are a public building, it is important to note the report states ‘the building is currently in sound condition’.’’
Feyen had previously refused to enter the building and had criticised an earlier report by Opus as a ‘‘desktop’’ assessment.
Feyen had also expressed concerns about the chambers being designed by Palmerston North engineering firm Kevin O’connor and Associates – which also designed 13 buildings in Masterton that are under investigation for potential structural weaknesses.
A statement issued by the council, quoting Feyen, in December said the first half of the report by Koru VSL ‘‘commissioned and paid for’’ by the mayor confirmed the building was ‘‘safe to occupy’’.
‘‘Initial findings of the report, carried out by Koru VSL, confirms the building is safe to occupy and has highlighted some work that could be done to improve the life of the building,’’ Feyen said in the statement.
Massey University local government expert Dr Andy Asquith said he was not aware of any similar incident where a mayor had requested reimbursement from the council for independent reports.