Tolley says she did not disinvite speaker
Election event: Official says it was her decision
Tauranga city chief commissioner Anne Tolley says she had nothing to do with a ratepayer representative being disinvited from speaking at an election candidate information evening.
That’s despite a staff email that said Tolley considered the decision.
A senior Tauranga City Council executive now says the decision was her call and she stands by it.
Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association president Michael O’neill was scheduled to speak at the council’s event for prospective candidates in Mount Maunganui on Monday.
The event aimed to provide information to people considering running in Tauranga’s local body election this year may need or want to know.
However, as previously reported, O’neill was “bewildered” to be told in an email last week he was no longer invited to speak due to the association’s link to a survey about city plans and projects.
The informal survey of nearly 1500 people found that residents wanted the Tauranga City Council to drastically cut projected spending to pare back the $4.75 billion needed to pay for a raft of proposed projects over the next decade.
O’neill said his association did not create the survey but relayed it to its members.
After O’neill replied and objected, a council staff member emailed a response, CC’D to Tolley, saying Tolley gave “careful consideration” to the decision.
The email stated: “Commission Chair Anne Tolley, who you [O’neill] have cc’d into the email, has given careful consideration to the points you have raised . . . it is not considered appropriate at this point in time to have you as a speaker for the reasons set out in the first email.”
However, Tolley has since said she did not “have anything to do with it”.
“What I was trying to do was keep as far out of it as I could,” the commission chairwoman told the Bay of Plenty Times.
She said she and the three other commissioners — appointed by the Government to replace the elected council three years ago — did not want anyone thinking they were trying to get involved in the election “even though it’s in our mandate to ensure good candidates come forward”.
Tolley said she pushed for staff to include a ratepayer voice at the event as the relationship between councils and ratepayer groups could be “difficult and frosty but also very important”.
“My understanding is that it was Christine Jones, who is the executive responsible for democracy, growth and strategy. That was the person who spoke to me and said, ‘We have this situation, this is what we suggest we do’.
“I’m just cross that I was named as involved in something that I was not involved in.”
Jones said the decision to remove O’neill as a speaker was hers, as was the decision to replace him with Matua Ratepayers’ Association’s Richard Kluit.
“I made those calls and I’m comfortable with them.”
Jones said she kept Tolley “in the loop” but acknowledged the email reference to the commissioner “wasn’t worded well”.
“We said it was Anne but it was me considering it.”
Jones said it was her opinion it was not appropriate to have a group linked to a survey about “active decision-making processes” speak at an election preparation event.
The survey found strong opposition to council plans and projects.
Asked whether O’neill would have still been removed had the survey results been favourable, Jones said she had not seen the results when she made the decision so this was not a factor. The results were made public later on Monday, a survey organiser confirmed to the Bay of Plenty Times.
“It was that the survey was circulating during that process. It was a totally separate thing.
“Whoever decides to stand and whoever people decide to elect, that’s what’s important here.”
Both Jones and Tolley said the candidates’ evening was a success.
O’neill said he did not attend the evening despite being told he could still come as a member of the public.
“I didn’t want to be further embarrassed by the potential of being asked to leave.”
The Tauranga election will be on July 20. It will be the first time the city will have elected governance since the then-local government minister sacked the previous council in 2020.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.