Election investigation clears mayor, councillor
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate and city councillor Angela O’Leary have been cleared of any election spending wrongdoing following a police investigation.
But the man that levelled the allegations says he was right to lay the complaints and is calling for more transparency around campaign spending.
Jason Howarth, a former mayoral adviser to Andrew King, filed complaints against Southgate and O’Leary with the city’s electoral officer in January, accusing the pair of filing false returns.
The complaints were later forwarded to police.
Southgate was interviewed twice by a detective as were the lawyers who took care of her campaign expenses.
She has since been informed no election rules were breached although an accountancy error was found in her returns.
The error relates to the double counting of a campaign cost, inflating her total spend to $59,042. That figure has now been revised down to
$43,485.24. Hamilton’s mayoral candidates had an expenditure limit of
$60,000.
Southgate said the error in her returns was found by lawyers who then submitted her revised expenses with police.
‘‘Even though in my heart I knew there wasn’t anything to find here, it’s nice now to go back to the public and say this is what it is, there was nothing,’’ Southgate said.
‘‘My integrity matters to me and I feel my integrity is intact. I worked very hard to make sure I followed the rules and that I did everything by the book. I consider myself to be an extremely honest person so I always find it difficult when my intergrity is under challenge.’’
O’Leary found out through Southgate that the allegations against her had been dismissed.
‘‘I think the communication with both of us was really poor actually,’’ O’Leary said.
‘‘I’ve never been in trouble with the policee in my entire life so it wasn’t a pleasant experience to be accused of something that you didn’t do.’’
Southgate and O’Leary, however, aren’t the only political figures to have their campaign spending questioned.
Earlier this year, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opened formal investigations into Christchurch and Auckland mayors Lianne Dalziel and Phil Goff over their election expenses.
Howarth doesn’t regret filing his complaints and said there are few options available to those who want to query candidates’ spending.
‘‘If you suspect something is untoward or needs investigating, there is no agency other than police who can investigate it,’’ Howarth said.
‘‘People will say my complaints were a waste of police resources but there’s no other organisation mandated to undertake an investigation into election spending.’’
The investigation into Southgate was validated given an accounting error was found in her returns, he said.
Southgate won the Hamilton mayoralty with 13,452 votes – a clear majority over second-placed King on 10,315. O’Leary finished third with 7870 votes.
O’Leary said Howarth’s complaints appear to be motivated by the fact he lost his council job following King’s defeat – a suggestion rejected by Howarth.
‘‘[Howarth] could have actually picked up the phone and met with me. I would have answered every one of his questions and allayed any concerns that he had, but he didn’t bother with that,’’ O’Leary said.
‘‘I think that’s the first step in the process of a decent human being.’’
Howarth said his focus was on maintaining the intergrity of elections. Greater scrutiny is needed of election spending, whether at a council or central government level.
‘‘There is a fundamental lack of oversight for local government in terms of expenses and funding. There are no checks and balances after [candidates] put their expense claims in. No one checks them, it’s just assumed to be correct,’’ Howarth said.
O’Leary said Howarth didn’t need to produce proof of wrongdoing to make a complaint.
Southgate said she will continue to use an independent law firm to manage her election expenses.
‘‘I’m just glad to be here and to be clear of those accusations and will get on with all the positive things now,’’ Southgate said.
‘‘My integrity matters to me and I feel my integrity is intact.’’
Mayor Southgate