Councillor’s complaints bill comes to $94k
Complaints and investigations in relation to an outspoken Dunedin councillor have cost ratepayers more than $94,000.
Councillor Lee Vandervis has been a vocal critic of Dunedin City Council (DCC) spending, but he did not respond to a request for an interview about the increasing costs of his complaints.
Those costs, revealed in a request made by fellow councillor David Benson-Pope, show the council spent $56,520 to address issues arising from Vandervis’ behaviour towards a staff member in September 2019.
That altercation with the staff member came after he was issued a $12 parking ticket, leading to former council chief executive Sue Bidrose lodging a complaint that resulted in a written censure.
The censure cost
$14,000 including $11,000 in legal fees, but that bill rose Vandervis sought a judicial review.
‘‘That relatively innocuous event was the catalyst for what followed,’’ Justice David Gendall said in his decision, after Vandervis applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the council’s decision.
That review in November, which upheld the council’s position, cost it $42,372, a figure that could climb further if the matter is taken to the Court of Appeal.
The council also accrued costs of $25,841 after three councillors lodged a complaint about Vandervis pointing and yelling at deputy mayor Christine Garey in July last year. A lawyer investigated and upheld the complaint, with the council voting unanimously for Vandervis to provide an ‘‘unreserved, written and public apology’’.
Another matter involved a 2019 complaint from Vandervis that concerned Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins. No action was taken, but the decision cost $12,003.
Vandervis, who has been a councillor since October 2010 and previously held office between 2004 and 2007, has also been the subject of previous Code of Conduct complaints. They include two in 2011, and others in 2013, 2014 and 2015, though the council has no accurate records of costs for these.
Yesterday Vandervis posted online about the escalating costs connected to the complaints and resulting investigation.
‘‘Extreme outside legal costs have been incurred by our DCC bureaucracy to discredit their most critical, outspoken and highest-polling councillor,’’ he wrote on Facebook. ‘‘They mostly relate to two separate untrue conduct claims against Cr Vandervis for criticising DCC staff and Cr Garey for not doing their jobs.’’ after