Sir Tim again considers taking legal advice
SIR Tim Shadbolt is again considering calling in the lawyers to fight his own council.
The Invercargill mayor says he is considering seeking legal advice because of ‘‘incorrect and misleading’’ statements from the Invercargill City Council as the fallout from a dispute about IT training continues.
However, the council is standing by previous statements it has made about IT training being offered to the mayor.
Last week, councillors expressed their disappointment with comments made by the mayor to the Otago Daily Times on April 9 in which he said several requests for oneonone IT training had been denied.
In a statement, council executive manager Pete Thompson said the mayor had been offered oneonone weekly training sessions but they had not been taken up.
Since 2019 the mayor had received oneonone IT training from staff as requested, usually in relation to a specific issue/ device, Mr Thompson said.
Deputy mayor Nobby Clark had also provided oneonone training for Sir Tim in November.
Local government digital training was also offered to all elected members, but Sir Tim declined to attend.
Specialised training in Diligent Boardbooks, the system used by councillors to access agendas and reports, was also offered to all elected members in October 2019.
The mayor did attend, but without his councilissued iPad.
In a statement, Sir Tim said he was highly disturbed as the council had not provided a fair and accurate record of his training.
He said the statement was misleading as he had impromptu technical advice when there were issues with devices, but that should not be considered formal training.
‘‘I have not been offered formal oneonone IT training from staff despite consistently requesting it.
‘‘As recently as February last year I had asked my deputy to follow it up and this request was declined. The lack of training was followed up with the council external observers in early February this year. How could I refuse training when it wasn’t offered?’’
Sir Tim stated he was considering seeking legal advice.
‘‘Online comments make it clear that I am suffering damage to my status from this attack.
‘‘I’m staggered that the council can admit it has no list of training and relies on unfounded comments by a staff member.’’
Last year Sir Tim filed legal proceedings against the council in an effort to recover his costs following a defamation trial.