Tēnā koe Harrison,

 

Thank you for your request for information.

 

We are handling your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA). We have forwarded it to the
appropriate Christchurch City Council staff, and we will provide a
response or update within 20 working days of the date we received your
request. Please note that the period between 20 December 2022 and 10
January 2024 do not count as working days. This timeframe will be taken
into account in our response, with a decision provided to you on or before
21 January 2025. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we
will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.

 

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact me using the
reference 1254913. If any additional factors come to light which are
relevant to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me so that
these can be taken into account.

 

If you have not had a reply within 10 working days, please email
[1][Christchurch City Council request email]   

 

Nāku noa iti, nā

 

Jess Griffin
Official Information Advisor
Te Ratonga Ture me te Manapori - Legal & Democratic Services

 

 

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This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and
may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.
If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete the email.

[2]Christchurch City Council logo

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Christchurch City Council request email]
2. Christchurch City Council logo
https://ccc.govt.nz/

Tçnâ koe Harrison,

 

I refer to your official information request we received on 2 December
2024 requesting the following:

 

Please provide all correspondence and advice sent and received by and from
the Office of the Auditor General and Christchurch City Council staff,
relating to the Conflicts of Interest of all elected members related to
the December 2nd, 2024 Plan Change 14 meeting of the Christchurch City
Council.

 

Refinement of request

In order to ensure that we provide you with the information that you’re
seeking, we require clarification on whether you are only looking for the
correspondence between Christchurch City Council and the Office of the
Auditor General (who only deal with pecuniary interests) or if you’re
seeking all correspondence relating to Conflicts of Interests for Elected
Members in relation to the 2 December 2024 Plan Change 14 meeting.

 

Once we receive the above refinement of your request we will continue to
process your request. Please do not hesitate to contact me at
[1][Christchurch City Council request email] using the reference 1254913 if
necessary.

 

Nâku noa iti, nâ

 

Jess Griffin
Official Information Advisor
Te Ratonga Ture me te Manapori - Legal & Democratic Services

 

 

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This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and
may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.
If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete the email.

[2]Christchurch City Council logo

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Christchurch City Council request email]
2. Christchurch City Council logo
https://ccc.govt.nz/

Tçnâ koe Harrison,

I’m reaching out in regard to the LGOIMA request you made on 2 December
2024, to let you know that due to the need for consultation with impacted
parties prior to the release of the requested information, we will be
required to extend your request under section 14 of the LGOIMA for a
further 2 weeks, with the information expected to be provided by the 4
February 2025.

 

Please let me know if you have any further questions about this extension.

 

You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review our
decision. Complaints can be sent by email to
[1][email address].

 

Nâku noa iti, nâ

 

Jess Griffin
Official Information Advisor
Te Ratonga Ture me te Manapori - Legal & Democratic Services

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

 

This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and
may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.
If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete the email.

[2]Christchurch City Council logo

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. Christchurch City Council logo
https://ccc.govt.nz/

Tēnā koe Harrison,

 

On 2 December 2024, you requested the following information, under the
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA):

 

Please provide all correspondence and advice sent and received by and from
the Office of the Auditor General and Christchurch City Council staff,
relating to the Conflicts of Interest of all elected members related to
the December 2nd, 2024 Plan Change 14 meeting of the Christchurch City
Council.

 

This was further refined on 7 December 2024, to all correspondence with
the Office of the Auditor General, councillors and staff concerning PC14
specific to pecuniary interests.

 

Please find attached all information which Christchurch City Council
recognises as being within scope of the request, which should be
considered, taking into account the following points summarising the
position relating to conflicts of interest for PC14:

 

 1. It is a key legal principle that decisions of the council need to be,
and seen to be, free from bias and predetermination.
 2. Issues of bias (real or perceived) can arise where an elected member
has another interest (such as pecuniary) that could be seen, or be
perceived, to improperly influence their decision.
 3. The independent legal advice received was that the least risk option
for the council would be that the two councillors do not participate
in the meeting due to having pecuniary interests in the decisions.
 4. Any issues of real or perceived bias would make decision(s) of council
vulnerable to challenge in the High Court.
 5. Even if a judicial review challenge is successfully defended in the
High Court, there is a significant cost to the council and not to the
individual members.
 6. When a councillor is advised not to participate, it is ultimately a
matter for them to determine.
 7. The Auditor-General can decide under the Local Authorities (Members’
Interests) Act 1968 to permit elected members to discuss or vote on a
question when they have a financial interest in a decision but only
for the purposes of that legislation. 
 8. Elected members who participate when they are financially interested
without the relevant declaration from the Auditor-General, commit an
offence and if convicted, are unable to act as an elected member.
 9. In this case, the Auditor-General made a declaration for the purposes
of the Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act 1968 that the two
members could take part. However, it still had to be considered in the
context of the general legal principles about bias.
10. Had the two councillors taken part, then they would not be at risk of
action by the Auditor-General, but they would be at risk of their
participation being used as a reason to support costly and lengthy
legal proceedings against the council.

 

Please note that our response to your request excludes information which
is being withheld under the following sections of the LGOIMA:

o 7(2)(a) – to protect the privacy of natural persons
o 7(2)(b)(ii) – to protect the commercial position of the person who
supplied or who is the subject of the information
o 7(2)(c)(i) – to protect information which is subject to an obligation
of confidence, where the making available of the information would be
likely to prejudice the supply of similar information, or information
from the same source
o 7(2)(g) – to maintain legal professional privilege

 

In Council’s opinion the reasons for withholding these details are not
outweighed by public interest considerations in section 7(1) favouring
their release.

 

You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review our
decision. Complaints can be sent by email to
[1][email address].

 

Publication of responses to LGOIMA requests

Please note: our LGOIMA responses may be published on the Christchurch
City Council website a month after they have been responded to, with
requesters’ personal details withheld. If you have any concerns about
this, please contact the Official Information team on
[2][Christchurch City Council request email].

 

Nāku noa iti, nā

 

Jess Griffin
Official Information Advisor
Te Ratonga Ture me te Manapori - Legal & Democratic Services

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and
may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.
If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete the email.

[3]Christchurch City Council logo

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[Christchurch City Council request email]
3. Christchurch City Council logo
https://ccc.govt.nz/