Benedict Ong published a lengthy post on social media yesterday relating to his complaint about fellow councillor John Chambers for "discriminatory remarks".
The Dunedin City Council said yesterday it had appointed independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg to consider Cr Ong’s complaint, as required by the council’s code of conduct.
It did not respond to questions about Cr Ong’s conduct, such as whether he had breached confidentiality requirements.
In December, council chief executive Sandy Graham told Cr Ong in an email an investigator would make a preliminary assessment of his complaint and in the meantime "this matter should not be litigated in public or in the media, in order not to prejudice any investigation".
Asked about this by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Cr Ong said his Facebook statement was "self-explanatory".
In that statement, Cr Ong said Cr Chambers had made "discriminatory remarks against our South Asian community" at a meeting on December 12.
"I believe our CEO Sandy Graham had a duty to act during this meeting that she oversaw, to advise Cr Chambers of his potential breach of code of conduct," he said.
"CEO Sandy did not do this."
Cr Russell Lund said last month Cr Ong spoke to him "immediately after his confrontation with Cr Chambers in the carpark" and Cr Ong was distressed by Cr Chambers’ alleged conduct.
Cr Chambers said he was not able to respond publicly and he said earlier he was happy to comply with the council’s process.
Cr Ong wanted Cr Chambers to apologise.
In December, the ODT pointed out to Cr Ong that within 25 minutes of the council’s chief executive asking him not to contact elected members about the matter, he copied them into another email about the investigation.
The ODT also suggested to Cr Ong people were not supposed to try to influence proceedings outside of the process that had been triggered.
Cr Ong replied, but did not address those points.
Cr Marie Laufiso asked him to stop copying her into emails about the matter "and any other correspondence".
