Wairoa mayoral candidate hit with SLAPP – by Tristam Price

In April 2020 Stuff reported an employment relationship problem at Wairoa District Council that was purportedly resolved in mediation, with a target of sexual harassment agreeing to leave with a payout.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121174106/should-council-have-completed-investigation-into-mayor-accused-of-sexual-harassment

But the Council reneged on a clause that said an investigation would continue, hence the media blowout. We also reported on it, explaining the legal process in greater legal detail.

In mid-2022 another dispute arose, but before the employee raised a personal grievance for unjustified disadvantage he announced that he would run as Mayor of Wairoa (currently, local government hoardings grace roadsides all over Aotearoa). Craig Little has been the Mayor since 2013 and was the subject of the sexual harassment complaint.

Simon Mutonhori was the Planning and Regulatory Services Manager. Mutonhori went into a mediation on 2 August but declined to sign a Record of Settlement and was dismissed the following day, for serious misconduct, apparently for the way the Council claims he handled a relatively mundane disagreement over vehicle Fringe Benefits Tax.

Newspapers reported Mutonhori’s dismissal, some of the other issues that prompted him to run for Mayor, and the $15,000 offer the Council made in mediation, which was not accepted.

Had Mutonhori accepted the Council’s offer and signed the RoS, that contract would almost certainly have had a clause requiring both parties to keep the payment amount confidential, and a non-disparagement clause, which are standard. To a lesser degree, offers made in mediation but not accepted may be expected to be treated as confidential, although it’s no big deal as we see from this 2021 article about a rejected offer of “the risible sum of $10,000 between the four workers” to settle an unpaid wages dispute.

With that said, Wairoa District Council did make a big deal of Mutonhori’s disclosure of the amount offered but not accepted. The Council filed a Statement of Problem in the Employment Relations Authority (where Mutonhori already had a personal grievance due to be heard at an Investigation Meeting in Napier on 30 August). But the Council somehow managed to push in and have its claim heard on that day instead! ERA Member Loftus imposed a Compliance Order similar to an injunction, against Mutonhori, with any application for penalties and costs yet to be heard. And the personal grievance? That could be months away.

This action was a strategic litigation against public participation, or SLAPP. Wikipedia defines a SLAPP as a lawsuit “intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. In a typical SLAPP, the plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs, or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism.”

What a great way to cripple a competitor – sue them in the ERA!

Wairoa District Council is not the only local body with snowflake managers. Check out the employment law shenanigans that we’ve previously reported on at Tauranga City Council (v Brown) and Hamilton City Council (v Halse).