Council or Feyen must release report

It’s the issue that won’t go away.

Horowhenua mayor Michael Feyen is concerned his council chambers are not earthquakeproof and nothing, it seems, will shake him from that belief.

Reports completed in 2014 and 2016 found the building was just fine. So the mayor ordered a further report.

Now Feyen and his council are in a stoush over who should foot the almost $25,000 bill.

The mayor says he would pay ‘‘if necessary’’, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, the council’s chief executive David Clapperton has confirmed the latest assessment of the building’s seismic and structural integrity differs to the 2014 and 2016 conclusions, but won’t say how and says the council doesn’t own the report.

The report may well inform the council’s decision-making, however, so maybe that’s why the council hasn’t yet publicly slammed the door shut on Feyen’s request for reimbursement.

It would appear Feyen’s refusal to release the report is his way of trying to get the council to take more ownership of his document.

Horowhenua’s local politics has become unusually tribal by New Zealand’s usually benign standards.

Feyen continues to have misgivings about a building designed by a firm under investigation over potential structural weakness in buildings it designed in Masterton.

Those not in the Feyen camp wonder why the issue is still on the table given the experts have spoken more than once.

The solution is simple – release the latest report and let people make up their minds.

But neither the council nor Feyen are prepared to take this simple step and instead became involved in a game of two-step as each side says it’s up to the other to make the latest report public.

When the Manawatu Standard formally asked the council for a copy and related documentation, the council warned if this took longer than three hours it would start charging at $76 an hour.

It seems the council wants to deny the public access to a report about a public building, and so does Feyen.

This invites speculation. Maybe the report has found problems with the building? Maybe it didn’t agree with Feyen’s entrenched concerns?

Either way, both elected and un-elected officials look as if they have something to hide. This is not acceptable and one, or both sides, needs to release that report, now and without charge.