Authorised by John Leggett, Blenheim

Mayoral candidate calls for honesty

MEDIA RELEASE

22 September 2016 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Marlborough mayoral candidate John Leggett says the recording of a discussion in an April closed committee session breached the Marlborough District Council’s Code of Conduct, and its public release five months later – on the day voting papers were being delivered – was part of a calculated attack on his mayoral campaign.

“The topic of ‘transparency’ is now being deliberately used to distract attention away from the dirty politics and the dishonesty that is occurring in this election,” Councillor Leggett says.

“One of my first priorities as Mayor will be for Council to better clarify the use of public-excluded sessions. Firstly we need to deal with the facts that a public-excluded discussion has been illegally recorded, and has been used in a calculated dirty politics attack.”

“A full investigation seeks to understand what has happened and who was involved. The fact that two Councillors haven’t signed statutory declarations is unacceptable.”

“Using ‘transparency’ as a reason to deliberately record and release a public-excluded Council discussion is simply a diversion,” Councillor Leggett says.

“Of equal concern are the questions of who is paying the bill to attack my mayoralty campaign, for whom, and why?”

Councillor Leggett says councillors have a joint responsibility to work productively together – not to undermine their colleagues for political gain.

“Agreement on what items are dealt with in public exclusion will be one of the first agenda items under my mayoralty.”

/ends

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