Christchurch mayor's text to councillor: 'If you are trying to piss me off you are doing a good job'

Friday, 3 February 2023

Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger says he has apologised to councillor Yani Johanson for his text in December.

Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger has apologised to a councillor for berating him in a text message, admitting his choice of words “was not flash”.

In the message, Mauger criticised councillor Yani Johanson for talking to the media and claimed he was “destroying” trust in the council.

Mauger wrote: “If you are trying to piss me off you are doing a good job”.

Mauger said on Friday he had apologised to Johanson in front of all councillors. Still, he joked to Stuff: “but at least I didn’t say drongo” – a reference to the slur Auckland mayor Wayne Brown recently used to describe the media.

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Mauger said he was “reasonably upset and disappointed” when he sent the text.

“I should’ve had a bit more reflection before I pressed send.”

Christchurch City Council chief executive Dawn Baxendale, left, got a nearly $16,000 pay rise in December.

The message was released this week by the Christchurch City Council under official information laws.

It was sent in December last year after council boss Dawn Baxendale got a nearly $16,000 pay rise.

Councillors voted in secret on the pay rise and soon after, Stuff revealed councillors had been instructed by head of legal services Helen White to keep their votes secret.

Mayor Phil Mauger told councillor Yani Johanson in a text late last year: “If you are trying to piss me off you are doing a good job.”

Stuff’s reporting led Mauger to email all councillors and call on whoever leaked White’s advice “to come forward and explain why they did it”.

He warned that if no-one did, he would ask council staff to explore “other options” for identifying the source of the leak.

Mauger said on Friday he had not asked staff to pursue it further, saying: “I haven’t instructed anyone to go out and go on a witch hunt or anything like that.”

He said he sent his text to Johanson after seeing his comments in the media, which “lit my fuse”.

Johanson called for the voting record to be released and said he intended to complain to the Ombudsman about the council’s refusal to release it.

Mauger’s texted him and said: “Which part of ‘don’t talk to the media’ do you not understand!!” and “If you are trying to piss me off you are doing a good job.”

Mauger said he was trying to build trust in the council, “and you are going out of your way to destroy it by grandstanding!”

Christchurch City Council chief executive Dawn Baxendale is “a wee bit upset” about what happened, Mauger says.

Mauger said he would now have to apologise to Baxendale, “because of your blatant disregard”.

“If you are not happy to play by the rules please let me know so I can take appropriate action.”

On Friday, Mauger said of the text: “Probably my choice of words wasn’t that flash.” Johanson could not be reached for comment.

Mauger said he had no problem with the email he sent all councillors.

In it, he called on whoever leaked the legal advice, and any councillors who commented publicly, to apologise to Baxendale.

Leaking the advice, Mauger said, “has been seen as a deliberate attempt to destabilise the relationship between this council and our [chief executive]”.

“It is also incredibly disrespectful to Dawn and unacceptable on so many levels.

“We could have voted to release the voting record, but we didn’t.

“If you just want to stir the pot, ask yourself if that is going to actually help people?”

Mauger said on Friday that Baxendale was “a wee bit upset” about what had happened, “because we’re trying to keep things private”.

Asked why the voting record should stay secret, Mauger said he did not know.

“We’ve just been told, just keep [your vote] private and so that’s what we did … that’s what I certainly did, I’m not telling anyone how I voted.”

The council has faced sharp criticism for keeping the voting record secret.

Victoria University’s Dr Dean Knight, an expert in public and government law, said he was pretty sure there was no basis for suppressing a voting record.

He said the Local Government Act enshrined the need for councils to act in an open, transparent and democratically accountable manner.

”Ratepayers can’t hold elected members accountable if they don’t know how they voted.”