No-blame dumping inquiry

Otago regional councillors have agreed to new ground rules for an inquiry into the council they govern at a councillor-only closed-door meeting last week.

Otago Regional Council chairman Andrew Noone said when councillors approved terms of reference for the inquiry steps were also taken to make sure ratepayers would not bear the burden of legal costs of those questioned in the inquiry.

ORC staff would not face repercussions if found to have made mistakes, Mr Noone said.

The upcoming independent inquiry into the ORC and its actions follows an Environmental Protection Authority investigation in July last year that established Balclutha construction company Andrew Haulage dumped demolition waste into the river in Balclutha after an ORC staff member raised no objections.

The incident was labelled ‘‘extraordinarily embarrassing’’ for the ORC by deputy chairman Cr Michael Laws after the company was fined but the council was also censured for its role in the matter.

Mr Noone said the inquiry was not going to lay blame on individual ORC staff members but intended to ‘‘understand the factual context’’ around ORC actions after the Clutha dumping and establish whether improvements to council processes were required.

Mr Noone said councillors resolved to ensure that Otago ratepayers would not be paying the legal bills of any individuals who might be questioned as part of the inquiry.

‘‘All the governance team want to know is why certain events happened as they did, if the actions associated were appropriate, and whether there might be lessons to be learnt,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve unanimously chosen the inquiry path because it should de-escalate the politics, and improve our learning process. We’ve also ensured that individual staff members need not fear employment repercussions if errors were made.’’

After a closed-door session in December, Mr Noone said two major issues that sparked the inquiry were whether the waste deposited in the river could have been removed earlier than it was, and how ORC processes could better meet the ORC’s environmental responsibilities.

Chief executive Sarah Gardner said staff were provided with a terms of reference draft.

‘‘We have asked for the final terms of reference and have been told it is not yet finalised,’’ she said.

Mr Noone said councillors agreed to the terms of reference last week and they would be finalised with the head of the inquiry, retired High Court Judge Sir Graham Panckhurst.

-- hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz