A Queenstown councillor has been demoted from her committee roles after she blew the whistle on plans to discharge 12 million litres of treated effluent each day into the nearby Shotover River.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council held an extraordinary meeting today over Niki Gladding’s positions in council and whether her actions were a breach of the organisation’s code of conduct.
She would remain a councillor but has been removed as the deputy chair and member of the infrastructure committee, and member of the audit, finance and risk committee.
Of the decision, Queenstown Lakes District Council Mayor Glyn Lewers said he was “disappointed” it had come to this point.
“No-one wants to go through this process, but look, as a group of elected members we talked this over, we felt that something needed to occur.
“To release legally privileged information in a publicly excluded setting, it was felt from the councillors something that had to be done, and given where we are in the triennium, the views I got were it had to be quick and wanted to get it over and done with, so I facilitated that and you saw the results today.”
Meanwhile, Gladding said: “For me personally, it’s not a major issue, and I say that because it’s the end of the term.”
“It’s the big picture I am more concerned about, what it means for elected members in the future, what it means for people to speak out, when they don’t believe the information was confidential, when they believe the council is keeping things from the community and when they believe it is unlawful.”
Gladding said prior to speaking out, “a lot of thought” went into going public with her concerns, and it was something she “didn’t take lightly”.
“I did give the organisation a chance to come out and speak proactively, but it seems that they needed five or so days to organise their thoughts and their legal position presumably before they could speak, and that was too late for democracy to work.”
She added democracy meant enough time for the public and iwi to come out and speak about what was happening and have a chance to share their views if they wished.
Eight votes to two
At a meeting today, there were eight votes in favour of removing her from the roles, and two against.
Gladding didn’t vote.
Three other councillors were appointed to replace her duties.
The public gallery was full with supporters.
Lewers wrote a letter to chief executive Mike Theelen last Wednesday, calling for a meeting to consider a “proposed discharge of an elected member from council committees”.
However, it was revealed in the meeting today that no formal complaint was made about Gladding’s leak.
Details from a behind-closed-doors meeting last month were leaked to media by Gladding regarding plans to discharge treated wastewater from a failed disposal field next to the town’s treatment plant.
The disclosures were made six days before a planned media briefing by the council.
The disposal field has been discharging small amounts of liquid since September last year when it became overwhelmed.
The council never sought consent to discharge into the Shotover but applied to use emergency powers under the Resource Management Act to spill around 12 million litres of effluent a day.
The council had received concerns from Queenstown Airport about “ponding” and the raised risk of bird strike as wildlife were attracted to the water.
The planned discharge started yesterday.
It is not the first time Gladding has been accused of breaching rules with the council.
They were unrelated to today’s action, and placed on the agenda by council.
Gladding faced code of conduct complaints in 2020 involving an “matter” which was “of a serious nature and a material breach of the QLDC Code of Conduct”.
The matter was not discussed publicly following a review by independent investigator Bruce Robertson.
Last year, Gladding received a letter from the mayor over a range of statements she made on a local podcast.
Lewers was advised Gladding made a “series of disrespectful comments in relation to QLDC staff and failed to respect the majority decisions of council”.
In response, Lewers wrote to Gladding: “If you would like to raise any matter constructively within a credible forum, my door is open. I have no issue with individuals holding their own unique views and I appreciate this work is challenging, but the pathway to building trust and confidence in our community is not publicly undermining and criticising public servants.”
