Legal advice about controversial councillor Benedict Ong’s behaviour has cost the Dunedin City Council almost $10,000.

That is on top of investigation costs involving the councillor, which exceed $17,000.

The costs were released to the Otago Daily Times under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

Total legal fees relating to Cr Ong’s conduct at the time of the request were $9852, the council said.

Also released were parts of a report by independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg, who assessed Cr Ong as having seriously breached the council’s code of conduct by sharing commercially sensitive information on a possible Forsyth Barr Stadium hotel development.

The ODT  has also received correspondence showing Local Government Minister Simon Watts has been asked to intervene over Cr Ong’s behaviour.

Behind closed doors in May, councillors accepted the findings of Ms Dyhrberg’s report and agreed Cr Ong had breached the code.

The council suspended him from all committees and subcommittees for nine months to February.

In her report, Ms Dyhrberg said Cr Ong disclosed information that had been clearly marked commercial in confidence and which was received in a non-public meeting.

His repeated copying in of journalists to ensuing email exchanges, also marked confidential, compounded the breach.

“It appears highly likely that Cr Ong’s repeated breaches of confidentiality were deliberate.”

Early in the term as a new councillor, Cr Ong complained about Cr John Chambers, but his complaint was found to be without substance.

Cr Ong was then himself at the centre of a complaint and on March 25 was found to be in breach of the code over an email about a staff member.

The council asked him to consider resigning and he declined.

He was removed from two representative roles and as a result his remuneration dropped from about $100,000 to almost $84,500.

Ms Dyhrberg’s report regarding the stadium hotel matter said Cr Ong had refused to accept his obligations under the code of conduct. 

He had potentially compromised the interests of the council and its subsidiary, Dunedin Venues Management.

Information released to the ODT included an extract from the confidential minutes of the May 18 meeting.

At 1.33pm, Cr Ong “stood from his seat, declared himself as not able to be in the confidential meeting and declared himself as barred from attending confidential meetings and left the meeting”, the minutes said.

At 1.41pm, city services general manager Scott MacLean invited Cr Ong to return to the meeting and advised him he could have his say.

Cr Ong refused the request.

A further complaint has since been received about Cr Ong’s conduct.

It was filed by deputy mayor Cherry Lucas, alleging Cr Ong had again publicly posted confidential information and criticised the council’s chief executive on social media.

An investigation into that is continuing.

The ODT requested under the Official Information Act correspondence received or sent by Mr Watts regarding Cr Ong.

The request revealed three emails sent to the minister.

One, sent hours after councillors voted to suspend Cr Ong from committees, asked Mr Watts to support the council “to do their job”.

The sender said Cr Ong appeared retaliatory to other councillors. 

“I can imagine this creates stress on his fellow councillors and their wellbeing, which must contravene health and safety at work.

“We are paying $89,000 salary for this person to consistently flout the code of conduct.

“There is a cost of living crisis and this is not value for money.”

On May 8, the minister was asked to look into Cr Ong’s actions and scope to dismiss him from the council. 

The earliest email, sent a week after October’s election, asked Mr Watts to look into Cr Ong’s banking career credentials, which the ODT later verified.

It appears Mr Watts did not respond to the emails.