ECan chairman in spat with chairman past

Environment Canterbury (ECan) chairman Alec Neill and predecessor Sir Kerry Burke are having a Christmas spat.

In a late-night email on Tuesday, Burke wrote to Neill, all ECan councillors and staff and to the Office of the Auditor-General accusing Neill of a "self-serving" response to Auditor-General Lyn Provost's decision that four councillors with conflicts of interest broke the law. Some ECan staff have expressed surprise at receiving the email.

Burke, who was ousted as chairman by Neill in September, said the four councillors – Pat Harrow, Angus McKay, Bronwen Murray and Mark Oldfield – were given plenty of information warning them that, as water consent-holders with irrigation interests, they were "conflicted" by taking part in debates and voting on proposed water management charges.

Neill has picked up on comments by Provost that Burke passed on only some of the information on conflicts of interest he had received.

He was "disappointed" Burke had not disclosed the ability for them to apply to the auditor-general for an exemption allowing them to participate without fear of conflict.

In the email, sent at 10.02pm on Tuesday, Burke said the media release of the auditor-general's decision was "a very poor, self-serving response, Alec, on council letterhead".

"Nowhere do you explicitly mention that our four colleagues have actually been declared by the auditor-general to have breached, ie, broken, the law, and that it was their votes, and yours, which have forced the 97.3 per cent of Canterbury ratepayers who don't hold water consents to again pay for the water management costs from which consent-holders are the primary beneficiaries," he wrote.

On Radio New Zealand earlier that night, Neill said it was a "technical breach" of the law. Burke's email took issue with that, saying getting a compliance report in a day late or forgetting to sign a document was a "technical breach".

"It could hardly be more serious, undermining the integrity of the council's decision-making process. It resulted from decisions of the [four] councillors to take part, acting contrary to the best advice possible," Burke wrote.

- © Fairfax NZ News