Conflict of interest in dual roles claim

Horowhenua District councillor Ross Brannigan's role as an emergency management officer employed by Horizons Regional Council was described as "a conflict of interest" by Labour Party spokesperson Clare Curran at a public meeting held in Levin last Sunday.

She said, "A civil defence role is an operational role which requires a lot of co-ordination and trust to act quickly.

The mayor of an area calls a civil defence emergency and the civil defence controller manages it but if that person has another governance role that is a conflict of interest and I will be raising the matter with TAG", a Technical Advisory Group overseeing the recently set up Earthquake Readiness National Inquiry.

The Inquiry has been set up to identify where improvements in New Zealand’s Civil Defence structure could be made in the wake of shortcomings highlighted by recent emergencies including the Kaikoura earthquake and Port Hills in Christchurch. TAG is expected to report back to Otaki MP Nathan Guy who was recently appointed to the role of Civil Defence Minister.

The public meeting, organised by the Horowhenua District Ratepayers and Residents Association Inc (HDRRAI), invited Ms Curran to speak about how Horowhenua residents could participate in the inquiry.

At the public meeting participants expressed a number of concerns about the district's ability to effectively respond in the wake of an increasing number of natural disasters the country has a whole has been experiencing.

Although Mayor Michael Feyen and councillors Ross Campbell and Piri-Hira Tukapua attended the meeting councillor Brannigan, who has the dual role of local councillor and regional council employed emergency management officer, was specifically ordered to stay away from the public meeting by Horizon's emergency management office Ian Lowe.

In an email response to HDRRAI chairperson Christine Moriarty Mr Lowe said, "it would not be appropriate for Ross as an officer of Horizons to be publicly speaking on behalf of either Horizons or the Horowhenua District Council on high level civil defence matters such as the proposed ministerial review of Civil Defence.”

"As Ross’s manager I do not endorse him attending the meeting on the 21st May as a representative of Horizons as you have requested. If however Ross wished to attend solely in his capacity as a Horowhenua District Councillor, outside his role of an employee of Horizons, then that is entirely up to him.

Ms Moriarty said Mr Lowe's response is typical of the kind of disorganisation that the high level Earthquake Readiness National Inquiry has been established to address.

"In the first instance Mr Lowe states it isn't appropriate for councillor Brannigan to attend on behalf of Horizon's or Horowhenua District Council and on the other hand he is saying he can attend as a councillor. You can't have it both ways and I agree with Ms Curran that Cr Brannigan's dual role is a conflict of interest.”

Compounding the concern expressed by Ms Moriarty is the lack of trust between Mayor Michael Feyen who would be calling a Civil Defence emergency and councillor Ross Brannigan who would have an operational role in responding to a civil defence emergency.

Councillor Brannigan was one of the nine councillors who voted against council spending any more money on engineering reports into the earthquake readiness of the Horowhenua District Council building. He also put his name to an advertisement stating the council building is safe for "normal occupancy" even though no peer review of the three conflicting engineering reports has been undertaken by council yet.

Ms Curran is expected to report back to HDRRAI on the inquiry's response to local concerns about councillor Brannigan's role.

"The conflict of interest would in all likelihood have an extremely detrimental affect on the district's ability to effectively and appropriately respond to a natural disaster and that could have potentially fatal consequences," said Ms Moriarty.

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