Hutt City Councilman Chris Milne apologized or he would be removed from the committee.

Councilman Chris Milne was ordered to publicly apologize after an investigation found he tried to influence a land deal involving a tennis facility of which his wife is president.

He will be removed from the Hutt City Council Risk and Audit Subcommittee and the Board of Seaview Marina Ltd unless he offers an unreserved public apology by October 23rd.

The apology must acknowledge that your actions were serious, violated the code of conduct, were incorrect, and would not be repeated.

An extraordinary meeting of the Hutt City Council today lasted seven grueling hours.

Former Ombudsman Leo Donnelly found that Milne committed three substantial violations of the council’s code of conduct and that his actions could damage the council’s reputation, discrediting him.

The councilors discussed the consequences of Milne’s actions behind closed doors.

Along with the apology, Milne was ordered to pay $ 16,500 for the external costs of the investigation.

You will only have access to City Hall staff through the CEO for the remainder of the year, and should be trained to address the issues identified in the report.

Milne said that even though the investigation ruled against him, he hasn’t lost much sleep over it.

“I think I was doing my job as a councilor.”

He said it was good to share what has been going on for the past six months and “get out from under the cloak of stifling legal jargon.”

The mood at the meeting was tense with Councilman Josh Briggs calling points of order during Milne’s defense speech.

Milne replied, “You do this all the time, you constantly give points of order, you can just shut up and let me carry on.”

The violations are related to two phone calls Milne made.

One was about a possible land deal that could result in money being redirected to the Mitchell Park Hutt Valley tennis facility.

Milne’s wife is the president of Hutt Valley Tennis, but neither has a pecuniary interest in the organization.

Milne called a council official who told the investigation that the councilman tried to encourage him in a rather “bullish and energetic” manner to present a formal proposal to the council as soon as possible.

But Milne said today that it was not true that he tried to influence the council official, with whom he has had a good working relationship for many years.

“Anyone who knows Bruce [the officer] And I would know that the idea of ​​being able to send Bruce is fanciful. “

Milne said he was just checking where things were.

On another occasion, Milne called the general manager of Waste Management in Lower North Island, David Howie, during a live tender for the council’s waste collection services.

Howie told the investigation that he began to feel uncomfortable that the conversation was getting closer to crossing boundaries.

It found Milne’s call to be inappropriate while there was a live bidding process going on and risked Howie collecting information that potentially gave Waste Management an edge over other potential bidders.

But Milne said today that it was a “longbow to draw” and almost anything could be built with the word “potentially.”

He said his actions were prompted by concerns from members of the public about biased consultation on the council’s waste collection services.

Milne said the council established councilors to have a fundamental conflict in their role in running consultation and bidding processes in parallel.

“What are elected members supposed to do when they have good reason to doubt what council officials have told them? How can an elected member resolve this if not by independently seeking information, in a way careful? “

He noted that the tender itself was never discussed in the phone call, and allegedly other people on the council had also met with potential bidders.

The Hutt City Council has received a letter from the Franks Ogilvie law firm threatening a judicial review of the city council’s waste collection service process.

The council’s executive director, Jo Miller, said the council intends to defend its position and has hired attorneys.

Mayor Campbell Barry noted at the beginning of today’s meeting that it has been six months since the matter was raised in April, which could not be resolved informally.

“It is with great regret that I think for all of us that we are here today.”