Town hall turmoil in reign of NZ ‘Trump’
Leaks reveal concern at mayor’s conduct. Julian Lee reports. Eric Watson sells off luxury Kiwi mansion
HE insists on being referred to as ‘‘your worship’’, threatened to leak damaging material about his own staff to media, and sacked his deputy after she stood up to him.
Westland District Council mayor Bruce Smith has been compared to Donald Trump for behaviour revealed in a tranche of leaked emails obtained by the Sunday Star-Times. They show his 12-month reign has been beset by infighting and humiliation of his staff.
Smith presides over one of the largest, most sparsely populated local authorities in the country, stretching 400km from Hokitika to Fiordland.
At the beginning of his tenure in October last year he instructed councillors to stand when speaking at the council table, but if he stood, anyone else speaking had to sit down. Smith later retracted this demand.
In a later email, which Smith confirmed as correct, then-chief executive Tanya Winter instructed staff that Smith insisted on being addressed as ‘‘your worship.’’
Winter also told staff that if the mayor was not satisfied with the speed of their replies to his requests, he would leak information to the media.
‘‘If we are tardy in responding we can expect something in the media we maybe didn’t want, because the mayor will go ahead and get info there whether we are ready or not,’’ she said.
In March, a Sunday Star-Times investigation revealed how a new business run by a cake decorator, which had no track record in waste management, won a Westland District Council project to build a $7 million sewage plant in Franz Josef.
The process was overseen by Vivek Goel, the council’s assets manager, who stood down when the Serious Fraud Office began investigating. Winter resigned over the controversy.
At least four out of Westland’s nine councillors have expressed concern over Smith’s treatment of council staff. The auditor-general has received a complaint over his conduct.
Matters came to a head in late October last year when Hokitika’s Sunset Point started eroding faster than usual. Smith pushed his own restoration plan, but Winter said it would only make the problem worse. Smith replied that it was ‘‘not Winter’s decision to make.’’ Councillor David Carruthers emailed back, saying that Winter was only acting on the instruction of councillors, and then urged Smith to restrain himself.
‘‘I don’t think getting stuck into our staff all the time, or treating Tanya like a child, is going to help us resolve what is a very sensitive and difficult issue.’’
The emails show Smith also told a West Coast resident he could ignore a warning from council staff on lack of resource consent for a trailer sign.
Smith had also forwarded confidential council material to local business people, local media and former National MPand Mayor Maureen Pugh.
On New Year’s Day, Smith sacked Helen Lash as deputy mayor. He has since reinstated her. When contacted about the emails, Lash said they were ‘‘deeply concerning’’.
‘‘It potentially creates serious compounding questions as to the level of what has been shared with people outside of council that have no entitlement to this information.’’
Lash confirmed that Smith had been regularly compared to Trump.
The mayor declined to comment on the emails. THIRTY-THREE hectares of open green space, a nine-hole golf course, polo field and a six bedroom mansion with three fireplaces are no longer the property of Eric Watson.
The Te Hihi Estate, in Karaka, carried a CV of just under $6m and served as a $10,000 per night retreat for corporates and celebrities but has now been sold by Watson’s company Cullen Investments to Luxury Resorts New Zealand according to property records.
An Agent for New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, Jason Geddes, confirmed the property had been sold but declined to comment further.
Luxury Resorts New Zealand is solely owned by Qing Ye, a Director of GMP pharmaceuticals.
GMP Pharmaceuticals is a recipient of numerous business awards for exporting natural health products to Asian markets through their large factory in East Tamaki.
Watson, who also owns the Vodafone Warriors, once owned both the estate and a nearby stud farm.
Both carried the name Westbury Stud, but Watson sold the stud in 2009.
The Te Hihi estate also carried the name ’Westbury’ at the time and was offered up for sale in 2010 reportedly marketed with a selling price around $10m.