Alan Dennis stepped down as chair of Stadium Southland after being criticised in a report by Invercargill Licensing Trust officials. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2021 www.photosport.nz
Another high-profile Invercargill civic leader has been embroiled in a harassment scandal.
Alan Dennis was president of the Invercargill Licensing Trust for 18 years until stepping down last October.
Earlier this year, Dennis approached a woman from behind during a visit to her workplace at one of the trust's sites and blew on her neck. He has admitted to and apologised for his actions.
A complaint was sent to the trust's chief executive Chris Ramsay and president Paddy O'Brien about two months after the incident.
"Alan ... crept up behind me and had then blown on the back of my neck," the complaint said.
"I immediately said to him 'Ew - that was creepy, why did you do that?' To which he replied 'Because I felt like it'."
She immediately mentioned the incident to someone else but did not take it further at the time.
Her complaint came in early May in the context of revelations then-Invercargill City councillor and Stadium Southland manager Nigel Skelt had told an 18-year-old stadium employee she would enjoy naked jelly wrestling.
The teenager resigned saying she did not feel safe working for Skelt.
Dennis was the stadium trust's chair at the time and had implored Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark to broker a resolution between the parties.
When contacted today by RNZ, Dennis took exception to the idea that his actions looked bad in light of his involvement with Skelt's resignation.
"They're two different incidents but I don't deny I was involved with that because I was the chair of the bloody stadium for God's sake. I didn't commit any offence.
"You're a male and you're breathing - does that make you guilty as well? C'mon," he added when pressed.
In regards to blowing on the woman's neck, Dennis conceded it was "totally inappropriate".
"I couldn't be any more sorry. It looks bad. There wasn't any bad intent ... it was totally unintentional to cause any strife. I do play jokes on people and they play [them] on me and I enjoy that sort of [thing], especially under stressful conditions at work.
"I feel bad. I can't be more sorry for what happened."
Documents released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act showed Dennis initially did not recall the incident.
"Alan does not recall behaving in the manner alleged but says if it did happen there was no malice intended and he was remorseful to the fact that the complainant was having to go through this process," O'Brien wrote to his fellow board members after meeting with Dennis.
"To be honest, I didn't even remember it. It was such a minor thing to me," Dennis told RNZ when asked about the incident today.
"It was brought to my attention weeks afterwards so I honestly didn't recall it at the time."
Following the incident being raised, he thought about it and recalled he had blown on someone else's head on another occasion when joking about them being bald because he was also bald and so accepted then that it had happened.
When asked if he accepted the woman's version of events, he said: "I'm not going to get into any arguments.
"What I did was I did a puff at the back of the head and said 'g'day' or 'hi' and that was all and I didn't have any reaction whatsoever. I never heard about it for weeks."
On 9 May, O'Brien and Ramsay wrote to Dennis advising him his victim had declined to meet with him to be offered an apology.
Dennis agreed not to visit the woman's workplace.
"As you know, we have been striving for a number of years to provide a safe and inclusive workplace," O'Brien and Ramsay's letter said.
"Your actions did not meet the standard we expect of visitors, and clearly had a negative impact on one of our [Invercargill Licensing Trust] family. You acknowledged this, also noting that no harm was intended."
Dennis resigned from the Stadium Southland board about a fortnight later.
Invercargill city councillor Ria Bond said she was disappointed by Dennis' behaviour.
"There is a cultural issue inside of our civic roles and organisations.
"Often people have referred to it as the old boys' club - that they get away with everything, and I'm kind of over it. I'm over that old boys' club, that network, of believing they are above the principles of what our community's expectations are.
"So I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's unacceptable behaviour and we shouldn't be tolerating it.
"We have to make sure we have strong individuals, like myself and other people in our community, that can step up and say - enough is enough, on our watch your behaviour won't be tolerated, we won't be compromising anyone's positions and your behaviour will be called out."
She applauded the woman for coming forward with her complaint and the leader of the Invercargill Licensing Trust for its swift handling of the matter.
Bond threatened to quit the council in May if Skelt did not resign after his comments to the teenage Stadium Southland staffer became public.
Clark and Skelt had tried to keep the matter under wraps.
Dennis was himself a former city councillor.
When told of Dennis' response to questions from RNZ about how his involvement in the handling of the Skelt matter looks in light of this incident, Bond said his comments showed "he does not really accept any liability for his behaviour".
"That's quite sad," she said.
"I don't think that's tolerated in most of our organisations that have had a lot of cultural reviews done and actually have picked up their game.
"There is no place for this old boys' club any more in our city. I want to be frank and upfront right now, there is no place for those behaviours here in our city."
RNZ also attempted to contact Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark. He did not respond to a request for comment.