Clapperton’s position is untenable
There’s a line between protecting staff from abuse and meddling in democratic functions, and Horowhenua District Council’s chief executive David Clapperton has crossed it.
This week’s sensational revelation that, according to a leaked audit report, Clapperton was snooping on emails, is inexcusable.
His position is now untenable and he must step aside – at least for the meantime – and allow an official independent investigation into malpractice at the council.
The Office of the Ombudsman or a Government-appointed investigator must move in to report to a public that has lost confidence in the council.
Horowhenua’s local body politics is unusually robust, but Clapperton’s decision a couple of years ago to ‘‘blacklist’’ email addresses, including one belonging to now mayor and then councillor Michael Feyen, was wrong.
In a public statement on Monday, Clapperton claimed he was trying to protect staff from feral and abusive comments.
He said the move was ‘‘necessary to protect my employees, so they can carry out their roles safely’’. Surely this would be achieved better by introducing a filter banning offensive words.
That Clapperton instead ordered emails from the banned list to be directed to him, to decide if he should pass them on or sit on them, is an affront to democracy. Even people who send stream-ofconciousness diatribes have the right to do so to their local body, and, especially, elected officials.
It appears he also intercepted emails sent to Feyen, then a councillor. One of these was from a Stuff reporter questioning Feyen for a story.
Just why a busy chief executive would think such snooping is a good use of his time is hard to fathom, as is the fact he granted himself the power to look over potentially confidential correspondence.
In a move straight out of the shoot-the-messenger playbook, the audit was decried by the council as ‘‘incomplete’’, with ‘‘due process’’ not followed.
The best line came from a council functionary, Philip Jones, who said: ‘‘Sadly, the actions of a few people have exposed Horowhenua District Council to possible legal action.’’
Amazingly, it seems he wasn’t talking about Clapperton, but the people who leaked a report that otherwise would have stayed hidden.
An official investigation needs to start now.