The Dunedin City Council has been forced to admit chief executive Sandy Graham engaged in misconduct.<\/p>\n
The finding of misconduct was reached after an investigation by King\u2019s Counsel Maria Dew in 2024 into a complaint lodged by deputy chief executive at the time Leanne Mash.<\/p>\n
Allegations relating to Ms Graham swearing often and making \u2018\u2018inappropriate comments\u2019\u2019 to the complainant about staff and elected representatives were substantiated in part, the council said.<\/p>\n
A decision-making committee for the council did not make a finding of serious misconduct, but agreed misconduct had occurred.<\/p>\n
Ms Graham was issued with a formal warning.<\/p>\n
The committee did not require her to apologise to Ms Mash, but it accepted her offer to do so and an apology was made, the council said.<\/p>\n
The Otago Daily Times first reported in May 2024 a senior manager at the council was at the centre of a conduct investigation.<\/p>\n
It later reported Ms Mash was behind a bullying complaint against her boss, Ms Graham.<\/p>\n
It remained unclear yesterday whether the council considered bullying had occurred.<\/p>\n
In November 2024, Ms Graham conceded her language had sometimes been unprofessional.<\/p>\n
The council has not previously disclosed the findings of the investigation into Ms Graham\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n
Public confirmation of the committee\u2019s finding of misconduct came after the ODT complained to the ombudsman about requests for information being denied.<\/p>\n
The ombudsman ruled the council was justified in declining to provide the information, but said it should release a summary to satisfy public interest.<\/p>\n
The council then provided the ODT a summary, which said Ms Dew considered relevant documents, correspondence and comprehensive interview statements.<\/p>\n
The committee was set up during the 2022-25 term and it accepted Ms Dew\u2019s findings. It comprised then-mayor the late Jules Radich, councillor at the time Bill Acklin and Cr Marie Laufiso.<\/p>\n
Ms Graham was required to undertake \u2018\u2018leadership and\/or communication coaching or mentoring to better assist her in performing her responsibilities\u2019\u2019 and engage in any \u2018\u2018facilitation process as may be indicated\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
Ms Graham was appointed chief executive in 2020 and her contract was last year extended until October 2026. She decided this year not to seek a further extension.<\/p>\n
In an email to staff last week, Ms Graham thanked teams for their efforts in managing the effects of heavy rain.<\/p>\n
She also pointed to likely upcoming news coverage that would be \u2018\u2018not nearly as positive\u2019\u2019 \u2014 the council was required to release a summary regarding the investigation by Ms Dew, she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018It was all worked through and resolved at the time, I apologised, made some changes in my behaviour and got on with things.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The ODT questioned the way the council summarised Ms Mash\u2019s allegations and asked if Ms Graham\u2019s behaviour was being minimised.<\/p>\n
A council spokesman said the summary provided \u2018\u2018uses the wording expressly recommended by the Office of the Ombudsman for release\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
The summary noted the lack of a finding of serious misconduct and the council \u2018\u2018therefore complied with its policies when it opted to issue a formal warning to the chief executive\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
Ms Mash was made redundant last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dunedin City Council has been forced to admit chief executive Sandy Graham engaged in misconduct. The finding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-524392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524392","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=524392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}