Former NZ council boss sacked
A former Taranaki council chief executive has been fired after a grilling by the West Australia Corruption and Crime Commission over allegations he misused his position for personal gain.
Questions were asked of Rodger Kerr-Newell, who was chief executive of New Plymouth District Council from 2001-2008 before moving on to the Rodney District Council in north Auckland, in relation to his role at the Shire of Halls Creek, one of four local government areas in the Kimberley, West Australia.
Draft minutes from a Shire council meeting held on May 16 show Kerr-Newell was sacked after the council terminated his contract.
Employed by the Shire since November 2013, The Kimberley Echo newspaper reported KerrNewell faced two days of questioning at a Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) hearing over serious allegations that he misled the council and abused his position for personal gain.
Allegations levelled at KerrNewell included that he hired Bronwyn Little, his then-girlfriend, to fill a newly created role at the Shire shortly after he started there, that he clocked up hours on his work cellphone to carry out business dealings connected to a New Zealand windfarm company and that he accrued 88 days of annual leave to which he was not entitled.
During Kerr-Newell’s tenure as NPDC chief executive, he oversaw the sale of Powerco and setting up the Taranaki Investment Management
Ltd or TIML fund, the completion of Puke Ariki and the foreshore walkway, and a massive hike in inner-city parking fees.
After working at the Rodney District Council, he was seconded as chief executive of the Auckland Transition Agency, which was responsible for designing the structure for Auckland’s ‘‘Super City’’ council.
Kerr-Newell told the commission when he started at the Shire, he found ‘‘a level of disarray in the policy and financial space’’ and there was a need for a strategic planning position, The Kimberley Echo reported. He then asked Little, who was living in New Zealand, to draft a job description and the role was advertised.
The Kimberley Echo reported 16 people were shortlisted for the position by a threeperson panel, which included Kerr-Newell, and a decision was made to interview only one – Little.
On the day of her interview, Kerr-Newell told his fellow panellists he had a ‘‘long and close personal’’ relationship with Little but denied it had been an ‘‘intimate’’ one. He told them he would not sit in on the interview. Little got the job in early 2014 and from then, up until May 2017, her wage increased by $24,000 as a result of performance reviews completed by Kerr-Newell.
‘‘Mr Kerr-Newell said within the context of what was presented by the CCC he should have disqualified himself from the performance reviews in line with the Shire’s code of conduct,’’ The Kimberley Echo reported.
Along with clocking up 72 hours of international phone calls on his Shire-issued work phone over a two-year period, the commission also heard how KerrNewell had claimed time in lieu that he was not entitled to in his contract. In all, he accrued about 88 days of annual leave.
ABC Kimberley reported Little had also left her job at the Shire, at the same time KerrNewell got the boot. He had offered his resignation but this was refused, it reported.