Public excluded from talks on council email saga

Horowhenua District Council will discuss its chief executive’s emailinterception practices behind closed doors.

Before the meeting, nearly all councillors have said they continue to back chief executive David Clapperton, who screened some emails from the public, mayor and councillors.

Emails from blacklisted people were either blocked, redirected or allowed to continue to their intended destinations. Not all of those emails were sent to council staff – some were between Horowhenua residents and councillors.

The conduct was labelled ‘‘extremely high risk’’ in a leaked draft report by an internal auditor, but the council says the draft report is incomplete, ‘‘not up to standard’’ and should not have been made public.

On Wednesday, the finance, audit and risk subcommittee will meet to discuss the peer-reviewed report, at a public-excluded meeting.

The peer review, by KPMG, cost ratepayers $22,000.

Clapperton said the subcommittee’s independent chairman Philip Jones would decide whether the report would be made public.

The meeting’s agenda stated public exclusion was necessary to protect people’s privacy, including council staff.

Horowhenua mayor Michael Feyen said he agreed the contents of the report should be discussed privately within the council before anything was made public.

The council needed to follow the right process, Feyen said.

‘‘I’ll be keeping a very close eye on it because the email situation is absolutely terrible.’’

Last month, Feyen said he was glad the draft report was out in the open, but he did not know who leaked it to members of the public or media.

A day after the subcommittee meeting, Privacy Commissioner John Edwards will visit Levin.

A spokesman from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said it was just a coincidence Edwards was visiting at this time.

It was part of a number of regional visits, he said.

The commissioner’s office received at least one complaint about Clapperton’s emailintercepting practices, but would not confirm the exact number.

Horowhenua resident Christine Toms laid a complaint to the commissioner’s office on July 24 after discovering she was on Clapperton’s blacklist.