'Hit me' taunt by former West Coast Regional Council chair Allan Birchfield

Former West Coast Regional Council chairperson Allan Birchfield taunted fellow councillor Frank Dooley saying, "hit me Frank" during an altercation in May.

But what happened was "relatively trivial" and "a storm in a teacup", council barrister Josh Lucas found.

His report, released to the Greymouth Star, was commissioned after a formal complaint from Birchfield of assault by Dooley on 8 May at the Ashley Hotel, in Greymouth.

The hotel was the venue for a recruitment panel for the new chief executive, and convened by council remuneration and employment committee chair Dooley.

The incident occurred just over five weeks after Birchfield was sacked as chairperson, not long after returning to council from a four-month leave of absence following a stormy closed door meeting at the council in late November 2022.

Birchfield was not invited onto the 8 May panel but he arrived and was sitting next to council's recruiter when approached by Dooley who did not want him there.

During the subsequent altercation, Dooley "made some heavy remarks" while Birchfield remained seated but said "hit me Frank," Lucas said in his report.

"(Cr Birchfield) said that Cr Dooley was being quite threatening and sometimes the best way to defend yourself (is) by standing up..."

Council last week excluded Birchfield from all council committees and ordered him to apologise, based on Lucas' recommendations.

Lucas contrasts what he had heard from those present on 8 May with what was said by Birchfield in the formal complaint about Dooley.

"Most of the people I spoke to expressed the view that this was a storm in a teacup," Lucas said.

"There was no assault. Cr Dooley got annoyed at the meeting. He told Cr Birchfield to leave and tried to grab some papers out of his hands.

"Cr Birchfield escalated the situation. He tried to provoke Cr Dooley to hit him. There was no physical assault. Even Cr Birchfield told me that. At the most there was some attempted grabbing of papers ... that's all that happened."

Council chairperson Peter Haddock had also acted appropriately and "with aplomb" at the time, including agreeing for Birchfield to stay.

This was in contrast to Birchfield's subsequent formal allegation that Haddock had "failed to intervene".

There was also an "amicable" phone call between the pair immediately after the 8 May incident.

Lucas said Birchfield's subsequent allegations against Dooley were "just plain wrong" and "were false and over the top".

"I consider that the raising of the complaint in this manner was a malicious attempt by Cr Birchfield to get Cr Dooley in trouble with both the council and it should be made public - which it was - with the local community."

It showed "a real lack of judgement" by Birchfield.

While Dooley had been "upset and annoyed," at the time he had also done "the right thing" and apologised afterwards.

That was where the matter should have ended, Lucas said.

"Cr Dooley's behaviour in that meeting was not ideal. He perhaps should have addressed Cr Birchfield in a more polite manner, but I accept that Cr Dooley realised that in the end he had gone a bit over the top."

As a result of his formal allegations, Birchfield had breached the council code of conduct by failing to treat Dooley and Haddock with the respect their office deserved.

Among the recommendations for an apology and censure, council did not follow another recommendation by Lucas that the code of conduct matter be aired in public.

Lucas said those he had spoken to, including Birchfield, acknowledged it was "a fairly trivial incident".

And at the time when council had "bigger fish to fry", what happened should have been dealt with appropriately in the first instance, he said.

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