Editorial: Matenga should consider quitting

OPINION: A fortnight from today, colleagues of beleaguered Porirua city councillor Hemi Matenga will consider his offer to stand down from some of his council-related roles.

His offer, made before he apologised to them, came after his former employer laid a complaint of theft with police.

Whether or not they act, he is heading in the right direction, albeit, it seems, reluctantly. He has lost the trust of several fellow councillors, some of whom want him to resign from the council as well. It is something he should consider.

Though people elected to public office need experience of life in order to understand the interests and concerns of those whom they represent, voters still expect those representatives to be like Caesar's wife – that is, above suspicion. Regrettably, Mr Matenga is not that.

The first-term Labour councillor has been in the gun since Bodyworks gym went to local police after nearly $800 went missing while he was employed there for 10 days as a supervisor. He has since repaid the money, though not before giving a convoluted explanation as to how and why he took some of it home in the first place.

Some of his council colleagues – notably Ken Douglas – are standing by him, though they believe it is up to Mr Matenga now to prove that he deserves to remain in his council role. Their loyalty to a newbie, and a young man from Porirua's strong Pacific community, though misplaced, is admirable. Mr Douglas, a long-time trade unionist turned company director, says: "He won't be the last guy who's acted in a stupid way and he's certainly not the first."

He is not. Three years ago, for example, former Manukau city councillor James Papali'i was found guilty after a jury trial on 15 charges of defrauding a sports trust of $40,000, which was intended for outrigger and waka clubrooms. Local government law disqualifies a councillor who is convicted of an offence punishable by two years' jail or more, regardless of sentence; some of the charges Papali'i faced carry maximum 10-year jail terms. In the end, because of community support, the judge sentenced Papali'i to 350 hours community work.

Mr Matenga's situation is minor compared with that in which Papali'i found himself, and he denies the allegation of theft. But he cannot be surprised that some who sit around the council table with him feel betrayed. Mayor Jenny Brash says: "People have bent over backwards to help Hemi ... [he] has let us down badly."

Fellow Polynesian and Labour councillor Tim Manu agrees. He believes that if Mr Matenga's apology were sincere, he would "follow through and resign from [the] council". That, he says, would be the honourable thing to do.

Deputy Mayor Litea Ah Hoi is tougher. She accepts neither her young colleague's apology nor his explanation over the missing money. She says she was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt "until I spoke to him myself".

Mr Matenga has some serious thinking to do.

- © Fairfax NZ News