Councillor Clark backs Shadbolt
An Invercargill city councillor has backed mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt’s assertion that the council chief executive must be held accountable for any actions he considers may bring the council into disrepute.
However, chief executive Clare Hadley has refused to comment on the issue again, saying her focus is on ensuring the organisation is fit for the future as it seeks to respond to Covid-19.
Shadbolt was one of just three elected members not to vote for a motion supporting Hadley’s negotiating actions with the Public Service Association [PSA] over her proposed staff pay cuts.
After hearing legal advice on the matter Shadbolt said he was unable to categorically state he had confidence in Hadley’s actions. Hadley’s proposed staff pay cuts, for those working parttime or not at all during Alert Level 3, did not go through after she was unable to reach agreement with the union.
Shadbolt did not believe the chief executive was ‘‘beyond reproach’’ – which he indicated some other councillors did – and said he would continue to hold her to account if he thought she was bringing the council into disrepute.
Cr Nobby Clark, the council’s finance committee chairman who also did not vote for the motion supporting Hadley’s negotiating actions, has come out in support of Shadbolt.
Clark said he was a former Government inspector of industrial awards and agreements and was of the opinion Hadley was in breach of the collective agreement with the PSA, and therefore the good faith bargaining provisions of the Employment Relations Act.
Clark said he attempted to raise his concerns twice prior to last week’s emergency meeting in which the majority of councillors voted in support of Hadley’s negotiating actions. ‘‘Both times I was blocked by a majority of fellow councillors who believed the PSA dispute was a management issue we as elected members should not be involved in,’’ Clark said.
He believed Shadbolt was ‘‘quite right’’ in that councillors had a requirement under the Local Government Act and an obligation to ratepayers to monitor and hold the chief executive accountable for the way she and senior managers managed the organisation.
He pointed to the fact Shadbolt had emailed Hadley saying the media was asking him about the staff wage cuts and he wanted to know what legal advice she had been given and by whom.
Her emailed response to Shadbolt was: ‘‘As we discussed this morning, this is not a matter for councillors. It is a strictly operational matter and should be left to me as chief executive and employer.’’
Clark said when he was spokesman for the Invercargill Ratepayers Advocacy Group, and before he became a councillor, he had observed a reluctance by most councillors to ask the tough questions of the two council chief executives over the years and hold them accountable for service delivery.
Hadley previously said the majority of councillors supported her negotiating actions with the PSA but she declined to comment further yesterday.
However, city councillor Rebecca Amundsen defended Hadley’s actions.
Amundsen confirmed the majority of councillors, including her, voted in support of the process Hadley undertook with the proposed wage changes.
‘‘I am confident in the work the chief executive is doing to bring improvements to the council overall, including in advising councillors and the mayor on good governance, transparency and accountability,’’ Amundsen said. ‘‘This higher standard being set for us, as well as council at large, is a change and a welcome one as far as I am concerned.’’
Clark agreed the majority of councillors supported Hadley’s handling of the PSA dispute, but said when the recording of the emergency meeting was made available, the public would hear what the lawyer advised the councillors. ‘‘You will be able to make a call on the issue and those that voted to support the chief executive.’’
Hadley declined to release the recording to The Southland Times, citing section 7(2)(g) of Local Government Act, ‘‘to maintain legal professional privilege’’.