Benedict Ong was elected to the Dunedin City Council following a tenacious grassroots campaign. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Correspondence provided to the Herald shows chief executive Sandy Graham wrote to Ong on Monday advising she had \u201ctemporarily changed your access arrangements to the Civic Centre until I have been able to conduct a health and safety assessment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason for this is two-fold,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cA concern has been raised with me about instances of you floor walking\/accosting staff in staff areas where councillors had specifically been advised this was not appropriate. Further, I am now in receipt of the preliminary assessment from the investigator into the conduct concerns I raised with her. Her preliminary findings are such that I need to put temporary measures in place to ensure a safe work space for staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the temporary arrangements, Ong retains access to the Councillor Lounge and ground floor of the Civic Centre. <\/p>\n
Access to other levels is by appointment and subject to escort.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Graham said she rejected any suggestion of retaliation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe claims made by councillor Ong are not correct. The councillor\u2019s access to the Civic Centre has temporarily changed while the chief executive undertakes a health and safety assessment following concerns which have been raised,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Code of Conduct includes a requirement for councillors to observe any protocols put in place by the chief executive, but the chief executive also has additional legal obligations to ensure workplace health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunedin City Council Chief Executive Sandy Graham. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
She said the measures were temporary and would remain in place while the assessment was carried out and \u201cuntil such time as the separate but parallel Code of Conduct investigation is complete\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ong has been pursuing two Notices of Motion, including one relating to \u201cinnovative debt financing\u201d. <\/p>\n
In an earlier email, Graham advised the motions related to 10-year plan matters and would need to be considered as part of that statutory process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis NoM cuts across a range of existing arrangements that are all considered or being prepared for the 10-year plan,\u201d she wrote, adding that the matters could be considered once the 10-year plan timetable was finalised.<\/p>\n
Ong said he did not accept the reasons given for delaying the motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not consider there are any grounds whatsoever for the notice of motion to not have been tabled at the last council meeting as I requested,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He confirmed he had requested \u201cInternal Debt & Treasury Working Material\u201d in order to \u201cshare my expertise to council executives and staff to innovatively structure our council entities\u2019 debt to freeze future rate rises.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he would now seek the material under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.<\/p>\n
Mayor Sophie Barker declined to comment on the specifics of the Code of Conduct investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s being managed through standard mechanisms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asked whether it was appropriate for a councillor to request internal working treasury material directly from staff, she said: \u201cIt needs things need to go through formal channels. There are processes around that sort of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it could be \u201cchallenging when you have new councillors for them to understand what the governance role is\u201d, noting councillors received training on the distinction between governance and operational roles.<\/p>\n
The current dispute follows several recent controversies involving Ong.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the chief executive lodged a Code of Conduct complaint relating to comments made by Ong about a staff member. <\/p>\n
An independent investigator has been appointed.<\/p>\n
Ong has previously said he does not believe there are grounds for the complaint.<\/p>\n
Separately, a complaint lodged by Ong against another councillor was dismissed following an independent assessment.<\/p>\n
Ong, 42, was elected after returning to Dunedin shortly before the last local body elections, running a campaign focused on economic development and rates restraint. <\/p>\n
His online posts, including references to a \u201csecret recipe for no rate rises\u201d and drew both support and criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very proud to be able to come back to my hometown. I believe I have a lot of things to contribute to our community,\u201d he previously told the Herald.<\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benedict Ong was elected to the Dunedin City Council following a tenacious grassroots campaign. Photo \/ Supplied Correspondence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[542,160421,1550,3937,2199,7559,10709,38290,7558,6788,3938,6119,134,53946,111,43,139,69,160422,1523,5034,81495,93601,6302,312,1516,1177,204,6123,17708],"class_list":{"0":"post-288782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-access","9":"tag-benedict","10":"tag-centre","11":"tag-chief","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-civic","14":"tag-concerns","15":"tag-councillor","16":"tag-councils","17":"tag-dunedin","18":"tag-executive","19":"tag-faces","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-limits","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-ong","27":"tag-over","28":"tag-response","29":"tag-restriction","30":"tag-retaliatory","31":"tag-safety","32":"tag-says","33":"tag-staff","34":"tag-standard","35":"tag-temporary","36":"tag-while","37":"tag-workplace"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}