In May, Alex Crackett made a presentation to council and had a remit approved unanimously to "request an investigation into the creation of an LGNZ [Local Government New Zealand] independent national process to handle complaints, ensuring fairness, protection and accountability in local government".
It followed events at her council where allegations of sexism, sexual harassment and general relationship breakdowns were made.
"Over my tenure in local government, I recognise that it’s really clear that issues arise between mayor, councillors and staff members, or that there is infighting between councillors.
"Issues can arise between members and not only major issues or large-scale relationship breakdowns, but also smaller inappropriate behaviours that we’ve likely all witnessed or experienced in some capacity — whether it’s just walking past casual comments or having them made towards you."
There had been substantial issues in past years and she had decided to do something about it.
Her first piece "of national advocacy" passed at the LGNZ annual meeting with 77% approval.
"For me, it was a real milestone moment.
"It was quite an achievement to have my first piece of national advocacy accepted and embraced by the nation.
"It is my first real piece of national change, so that felt really fantastic."
Cr Crackett said she received an email from the local government commission last month about the creation of a subcommittee to implement some of the remits highlighted at the meeting.
There was no clear answer or solution yet for the problem but the idea was to streamline the process and create a space where elected members and staff could feel comfortable to speak up and seek guidance to address their concerns.
She believed the only resources at the moment were code of conduct complaints, which cost money and often did not achieve effective results.
"The idea of the system is that these bad behaviours and issues get picked up before they can escalate.
"So therefore, ideally, they never end up in the code of conduct because the issue has been resolved and the behaviours also have been resolved.
"Obviously, the code of conduct will still exist. This does not replace it, but it gives the complainant an independent place to take those issues to, a safe space"
She hoped this move could also attract more diversity to the council.
"This is why I’m so excited about it, because I’m putting this in place for the people that come after me, so that they don’t have to experience these behaviours that I had to.
"I wished that this system or the solution had existed for me when entering local government."
