‘I must leave politics to the politicians . . .’
Porirua City Council’s chief executive says she has left ‘‘politics to politicians’’ despite the outgoing mayor saying her decisions might have cost him an election.
The chief executive at the centre of an election controversy has answered written questions over her handling of an investigation into ‘‘unusual’’ petrol card spending by outgoing mayor Mike Tana.
A week before elections Porirua chief executive Wendy Walker sent a confidential email to councillors and Tana, disclosing potential mayoral petrol card spending irregularities – revealing she had an initial meeting with police. It leaked, triggering a frantic final week of campaigning; Walker subsequently decided no complaint would be lodged with police.
Tana says the email and its subsequent leak to media were likely responsible for his election loss.
Walker, expanding on a previous media statement, said she sent the email because of her professional ‘‘no surprises’’ policy with the council.
‘‘I felt that I had a responsibility to tell my employer about an issue that had the potential to be financially and reputationally damaging for the council.’’
The timing was difficult for decision-making ‘‘but I determined I could not ignore the issue and needed to address the matter, despite the political context’’.
‘‘I think it’s important to distinguish between my role as chief executive and politics. I must leave the politics to politicians.’’
Tana lost the election by 397 votes to councillor Anita Baker – with a quarter of the returns cast on the final day of voting.
Yesterday, he repeated his call for an independent investigation into Walker’s process and the leak. ‘‘I can’t see the answers she’s given you as being the answers that would give people confidence that was a fair and reasonable process she put me through.’’
The audit could have been done at any time, and he had already given assurances he had done nothing wrong before she sent the email, Tana said.
The council could have confirmed his spending using service station camera footage.
Tana said under her process, she gave the information to councillors, ‘‘of which four were competition for the mayoral candidacy’’.
He said as the council’s chief executive, she could not be seen to influence the elections at all. ‘‘No-one can.’’
Tana said Walker had still not even publicly acknowledged he was cleared.
On the decision to contact police, Walker said several deadlines had passed for Tana with no detailed information given.
‘‘Should I have escalated to the police? In the absence of any explanations for the usage, I sought advice and I had advised Mike I might be taking that step.’’
New mayor Anita Baker said she backed Walker’s decision to disclose the information, and the chief executive had been in a ‘‘catch-22’’ with its timing.
‘‘She had no choice, she asked Mike for the documents and she wasn’t getting any answers . . . if he’d answered them in the beginning, we wouldn’t have an issue.’’