ECan councillor expected to face disciplinary review

A secret disciplinary hearing into an email campaign that left some Environment Canterbury (ECan) councillors feeling bullied will be held this week.

Details of the confidential code-of-conduct meeting are sketchy, but The Press has been told it is likely to begin on Friday and report to the full council on September 24.

Cr Jo Kane, who resigned as ECan deputy chairwoman last week, laid a formal code-of-conduct complaint with council chairman Sir Kerry Burke last month about what she said were "email threats, intimidation and defamatory allegations" by Cr Rik Tindall.

Several councillors said they felt threatened by a series of emails from Tindall, the chairman of ECan's emergency management committee.

The emails followed Tindall's failure to be elected as ECan's representative on a Christchurch City Council climate change and sustainability working party.

Instead, Christchurch North representative and ECan hazards committee chairwoman Cr Jane Demeter was nominated and elected.

Burke said yesterday he was unable to confirm the hearing was taking place, "or provide any other information", because such matters were confidential.

Kane said she was not allowed to comment under the strict code-of-conduct rules, and Tindall said he was not prepared to comment.

However, last month he linked the emergence of the email issue with the impending no-confidence vote in Burke as chairman.

Alleged breaches of the councillors' code of conduct are heard by a conduct review board. If there is a case to be answered, board members can recommend informal means of resolving the issue or formal censure. In the worst case, councillors in breach of the code can be removed from council committees or dismissed as deputy chairman or chairman of a committee.

Last month, Tindall emailed councillors saying that as a result of not being elected to the city council working party he would "absolve myself of all and any responsibility for any loss of life in Canterbury that should happen to occur through deficiencies in civil defence and emergency management preparedness".

He also emailed Burke, saying the election process for the working party was "totally deficient".

"I no longer consider you a fit and fair chairperson, sir," Tindall said.

Burke emailed back, "utterly" rejecting "any conspiracy theory involving me".

Kane is denying she resigned as deputy chairwoman following a spot on CTV with Mike Yardley.

Burke said last week her resignation was "triggered" by the distribution to councillors of a video of that TV appearance.

Kane said she had decided she was going to resign last week because she had not supported Burke's chairmanship at the recent Timaru meeting.

- © Fairfax NZ News