The deal would have seen the council buying the land under the derelict Reading Cinema on Courtenay Place (file photo). Photo: CC 4.0 BY-SA / Tom Ackroyd
Councillors accused of leaking information about a potential land purchase in central Wellington are refusing to take part in an investigation into their conduct.
In October, councillors Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Tony Randle, Nicola Young and Iona Pannett were the subject of a code of conduct complaint, made by mayor Tory Whanau and deputy mayor Laurie Foon.
Now, a joint statement from Calvert, Chung, Randle and Young shows they will not be participating in the investigation.
Pannett declined to comment.
Calvert said they had been accused of leaking papers about a deal which would have seen the council buying the land under the derelict Reading Cinema on Courtenay Place.
The statement called the evidence "purely circumstantial, very loose and certainly not sufficient to launch an investigation of this nature".
"The mayor and deputy mayor are using council resources to target the elected members whose views don't conform with the politics of the mayor, and who want a higher level of accountability around council business," it reads.
Calvert said it was "a complete waste of ratepayers' money".
She said the councillors involved received an email from the mayor's appointed investigator, Linda Clark from Dentons Kensington Swan, containing the allegations and excerpts from media.
"The correlation was that because we had mentioned something, that we had leaked information about the deal," she said.
She said she thought these councillors had been singled out because of their opposition to recent council decisions. "We're the ones who are wanting to hold the mayor and council to account.
"Our role is to ensure that we set the strategy for the organisation, and that we monitor the performance of the council against that strategy. And we've been raising issues - whether it be the finances, or the town hall."