By Susan Botting – Local Democracy Reporter for Northland

A Kaipara District Councillor has been made to apologise in the wake of code of conduct complaints from two council staff over a Facebook post.

Kaipara District Council (KDC) councillor Victoria del la Varis-Woodcock publicly apologised to the two staff at Wednesday’s Kaipara District Council (KDC) meeting.

Her public apology to the staff and to the full council came after her fellow elected representatives unanimously voted in favour of meeting agenda recommendations arising from an investigation into two July code of conduct complaints.

The investigation was done by former Rodney District Council Mayor and KDC council code of conduct investigator John Law.

Law said his decision was that the case was “material” and potentially brought the council into disrepute as well as adversely affected the privacy and integrity of the complainants.

The staff code of conduct complaints were received by KDC chief executive Louise Miller on July 8, regarding a Cr del la Varis-Woodcock Facebook post about the council’s live-streamed June 29, 2022 meeting.

The councillor’s June 30 Facebook post referred to an anti-Three Waters community group presentation at the start of the previous day’s council meeting.

Her post alleged the staff had tampered with the meeting’s sound recording. It also included accompanying images of the two staff.

Law said that in his opinion, which had been confirmed by others, the meeting audio was not censored. The meeting was recorded live and automatically saved to YouTube when the recording ended.

“What is on YouTube is exactly what was recorded. The council meeting technology/ microphone simply did not pick up any background sounds like cheering,” Law said.

He noted that Cr del la Varis-Woodcock genuinely thought the sound had been censored, hence her Facebook post comments.

“However, she did not check this prior to uploading her post,” Law said.

“The censorship claim in the offending Facebook post is incorrect. Thus, the inference in the Facebook post is undermining the photographed staff,” Law said.

He also noted that Cr del la Varis-Woodcock removed the post following his interviewing her as part of his investigation.

Cr del la Varis-Woodcock – who is standing as a Kaipara Mayoral candidate in this year’s local government elections – publicly apologised at Wednesday’s council meeting.

“I apologise to the complainants for any harm, upset or inconvenience that they may have experienced, due to the genuine error in the Facebook post I made on June 30 and corrected on July 19 in response to being made aware of the complaint,” Cr del la Varis-Woodcock said.

She also publicly apologised to the mayor, deputy mayor and councillors.

Cr del la Varis-Woodcock is, in addition, required to privately apologise to the two complainants.

Law’s investigation found Cr del la Varis-Woodcock had breached three sections of the council’s Code Of Conduct in her Facebook post on June 30.

KDC Mayor Dr Jason Smith said he supported the two staff and the council chief executive in bringing the matter forward to the full council to discuss and decide on.

“I view this very gravely. “

He said he felt very sad and disappointed but his feelings were significantly diminished by what the two complainants must be feeling.

Smith said the investigator had set out clear steps for the council to follow in addressing the matter.

Miller wrote to Smith on July 11 about the staff code of conduct complaints as part of council policy around dealing with such matters.

Miller said the post went up on the Facebook page “Cr Victoria del la Varis-Woodcock – Kaipara Councillor” at 10.32am on June 30.

She said the post had not treated the staff involved with respect and courtesy.

Her letter cited wording from the post: “The staff have censored the loud public response which misrepresents the reality, but is really worth a listen”.

Miller said del la Varis-Woodcock could have sought clarification from staff regarding the meeting recording, before putting the post online.

That had not happened and therefore the councillor had not acted ethically nor respected the honesty and integrity of the staff in this instance.

Cr del la Varis-Woodcock was offered the choice of leaving the room or staying during debate ahead of the council voting on nine recommendations. She chose the latter.

The mayor and councillors voted to confirm their support for the investigator’s finding that Cr del la Varis-Woodcock had breached KDC’s Code of Conduct and in favour of his recommended remedial actions.

They also voted in favour of requiring her public and private apologies and a social media induction course after the October 8 local government elections for all new incoming elected representatives. Their vote was also in favour of the chief executive considering including extra funding in a future Annual Plan for improved council meeting technology.

• Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air