A Christchurch City Council staff member publicly advocated for housing intensification, despite earlier warnings to councillors to avoid expressing opinions during discussions on the intensification plan.
Just weeks ago, councillors were warned by staff to be cautious, as expressing personal opinions or heavily weighing public feedback on the intensification plan could lead to legal issues for the council.
On Wednesday, councillors will decide on recommendations to increase the height and density of residential and commercial buildings in the central city and other Christchurch suburbs.
Despite these cautions, two weeks ago, the council sponsored a public discussion on the “benefits of higher-density housing” in collaboration with the publicly funded Te Pūtahi Centre.
Promotional material for the event read, “Join us for this Christchurch Conversation as we explore the case for higher-density housing and its perceived barriers.”
The council’s Principal Advisor on Urban Design, Ekin Sakin, spoke at the event, advocating for the advantages of intensification. Before her talk, she clarified, “While I work for the council, I don’t represent the views of the council; I’m here in my capacity as an Urban Designer.”
However, in an interview with Chris Lynch Media, Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger said such actions could affect public trust in the council. “We’ve got to be very careful because we need to ensure that we don’t appear predetermined,” Mauger said. “Otherwise, you get a judicial review, and it’s costly. The government set the rules for using independent hearings panels, not us. We would have preferred to handle things differently to save money.”
Combined Residents Association President Tony Simons added, “An employee who values their job should never do anything in public which might put their employer at risk. Imagine if a councillor had used the same argument to justify expressing an opinion in public against intensification. ‘While I am a councillor, I’m here in my private capacity.’ Clearly, that’s not acceptable either,” Simons said.
In a separate issue, Mauger also called for greater transparency in how council staff report data, expressing concerns about misleading statistics. He raised this issue during a recent workshop, where he questioned claims that new priority bus lanes on Lincoln Road had led to a 59% increase in bus patronage since 2015.
“Bus lanes have only been in place for a year,” Mauger said. “You should be looking at the numbers from just one year to the next, not going back several years. You could go back to 1840 when no one was using a bus and claim a 100% increase. We’ve got to make sure we’re not playing with numbers to make them look better than they actually are.”
Mauger said misleading statistics could harm public trust, a concern echoed by the community.
