There’s something going on at the Christchurch City Council at the moment that raises a very interesting question about how we expect or want people elected to our local councils to behave.

So, even though strictly speaking it’s a Christchurch City Council thing, this is actually relevant wherever you live.

The story begins with Christchurch councillor Aaron Keown, who is in the dog box for saying bad things about other councillors and council staff on Facebook. Or maybe “implying” bad things is a better way of putting it.

Nevertheless, his fellow councillor Sara Templeton took exception to what Aaron Keown said on Facebook and laid a complaint, alleging that he had breached the council’s Code of Conduct.

The council hired an Auckland lawyer to consider the complaint as an independent investigator. And he’s come back saying that Aaron Keown has seriously breached the code of conduct.

Here’s a quote from the lawyer’s judgement: “The post is discourteous and not focused on the issues, but rather on personalities. The post would tend to place the council and councillors in a bad light with the public.”

So Councillor Keown has been found guilty and, this week, his fellow councillors are going to decide what to do about it. They may force him to apologise. There’s even a suggestion that councillors could force him to resign.

I don’t know, actually, how likely that would be. I think an apology is way more likely but who knows?

What he said on Facebook was in relation to the panel considering plans to change things on the streets around the site of Christchurch's new stadium, Te Kaha.

The council plans to do work in that area way before the stadium’s finished. Some of the work is underground infrastructure stuff. Some of it isn’t.

Above ground, the council’s going to bring the speed limit down to 10 kilometres per hour (yes, that’s for cars and buses and trucks), widen footpaths etc.

So it had a hearings panel to go through the plans and come up with a recommendation as to whether the council should do the work, what changes might be made.

And Councillor Aaron Keown went on Facebook and said, when he saw who was going to be on the panel, he decided he didn’t want to be part of it or involved in it because he knew what its recommendation would be.

He said: “The panel is stacked to get the outcome. I will get in trouble for this post but cannot stand by watching another charade.”

He was right. He did get in trouble for it. Because one of his fellow councillors lodged a complaint alleging that he’d gone against the council’s code of conduct, which says councillors can’t publicly criticise council staff or other councillors.

Aaron Keown doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. He believes he should be able to speak publicly if he doesn't agree with something.

But is this how we want the people elected to our local councils to behave?

Do we want our local councillors to do the “united front” thing that central governments try to do? Although, the current government is starting to fail on that one.

Or do we want them to say what they really think?

I think the united front approach wouldn’t work for councils. Primarily, because local council meetings are open to the public and, in some places, they’re even livestreamed online. So we know what councillors think about certain things already and we’d see through a united front approach pretty quickly, wouldn’t we?

But if we’ve really had a gutsful of politicians behaving like kids as much as we say we have, then we have to tell people like Councillor Aaron Keown to pull their heads in.

Because, when you put yourself up for election and you win and you find yourself sitting around a council table, you also agree to behave in a way that is expected of you.

And, in the case of councils and councillors, there is a code of conduct. And, if you don’t abide by that code of conduct, then you have to face and accept the consequences.

Which is why I think Aaron Keown deserves everything that’s coming at him.

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