Mr Simms says the departure of employment lawyer Rachel Brazil from his Future Dunedin ticket on Wednesday was mutually agreed and did not reflect poorly on his ticket.
"We’ve got some great candidates that will make very good councillors. So I certainly don’t see ... that it’s crumbling or anything like that," he said.
Ms Brazil, who is now standing as an independent candidate, told the Otago Daily Times since joining Future Dunedin she had "been in two minds" about running on the ticket and previously considered leaving.
She said she decided to depart the ticket over the weekend and said it was not related to her sharing a leaked, confidential investigation report into the behaviour of Dunedin City Council chief executive Sandy Graham.
In an email chain between council candidates, seen by the ODT, Ms Brazil said she sent a copy of the report to Cr Christine Garey.
The council later warned sharing the report, which was leaked to many candidates on Sunday, potentially breached the Privacy Act and it would notify the Privacy Commissioner.
Ms Brazil, who still endorsed Mr Simms for mayor, said she had left Future Dunedin as she was worried her affiliation with the ticket affected public perception of her.
"I don’t want to lose votes from people who believe in me because of the team affiliation — I just decided I’m just going to run as me."
Mr Simms said Ms Brazil’s decision to share the report was "probably a mistake in hindsight" but not malicious — he said he doubted it related to her leaving the ticket.
"She indicated that she believes she’d be better running as an independent candidate and we agreed that that would be the course of action she would take," he said.
In March, former group member Robert Hamlin was removed from the Future Dunedin ticket after criticising the use of karakia. He is now standing as an independent candidate.
Mr Simms said Future Dunedin was a diverse group, which brought opportunities and challenges — Ms Brazil’s departure was not a repeat of Dr Hamlin’s and did not represent "any dysfunction" in the group, Mr Simms said.
"If you start with 10 [candidates], you’re going to shake out one or two along the way," Mr Simms said.
Ms Brazil’s profile had been removed from the ticket’s website but would appear as a Future Dunedin candidate name on election papers, which had been printed, Mr Simms said.
"We’ve got a lot of collateral with Rachel on it as well and we’ve just agreed that we’re just going to leave that as it is."
Leaked report
In the shared emails, council candidate Lachlan Akers warned Ms Brazil and others not to share private documents as it could be a breach of the Act. Ms Brazil replied saying she expected the report was already public and ‘‘and sending in house is likely to be OK’’.
Ms Brazil said yesterday she was mortified by her ‘‘lapse of reason’’.
‘‘I made a mistake and I own it fully. I will suffer whatever sanction happens.’’
She said she would continue to advocate for her beliefs and the community.
Cr Garey said she deleted the email when she realised Ms Brazil had sent her the Dew report.
‘‘It’s not something that required any discussion — it was very clear that she had no business receiving it, no-one had any business forwarding it and nobody had any business reading it.’’
Ms Brazil told her she regretted sending the report, Cr Garey said.
‘‘She realised the enormity of what she had done.
‘‘It’s a breach of the Privacy Act and she’s an employment lawyer.’’
Mayoral candidate Cr Carmen Houlahan also noted Ms Brazil’s profession and said the report was ‘‘clearly marked confidential and it was private’’.
‘‘Is this normal for an employment lawyer to breach confidentiality and privacy?’’ Cr Houlahan asked.
Green Party mayoral candidate Mickey Treadwell said he was disappointed to see several candidates’ ‘‘open discussion and apparent dissemination’’ of the report.
Ms Brazil said she was ‘‘amazed at the attack comments’’, especially Cr Houlahan’s.
‘‘To claim I am not a good lawyer is devastating to me. She is using this to point score and it’s toxic.’’
A council spokesman said the council privacy officer had contacted a number of parties emailed the confidential material, asking them to respect the matter’s ongoing legal and privacy obligations.
‘‘This includes asking them not to forward or distribute confidential information and delete any email containing it, to avoid causing further harm to named individuals or potentially being in breach of the Privacy Act 2020,’’ he said.
He declined to comment further.
