Cr Ong’s conduct was raised at a Wellington City Council workshop last week when deputy mayor Ben McNulty asked if legislation with ‘‘teeth’’ could be developed during local government reform to address frequent and repeated instances of leaking, ‘‘... to actually deal with these kind of almost existential threats to democracy’’.
‘‘There’s a councillor currently in Dunedin ... as soon as they receive confidential information, sends it to the Otago Daily Times within minutes and that’s been incredibly disruptive for the whole operation of that council,’’ he said, referring to Cr Ong.
Cr Ong, who has repeatedly leaked confidential information to media, addressed the comments on social media yesterday, saying he was being ‘‘politically and falsely attacked’’.
Two code of conduct complaints against Cr Ong have been upheld in the past four months.
A third code of conduct complaint was laid against him by Dunedin deputy mayor Cherry Lucas last month relating to a social media post which allegedly breached confidentiality, among other requirements.
