Council "Openness" Back in Spotlight After Ombudsman Intervention Relating to The Peter Ellis and Creche Case

The New Zealand Reporter. 27 November 2024: ahead of a final Ombudsman report, the Christchurch City council has released public excluded meeting minutes relating to the 1990's Council creche case.

Before Ombudsman Peter Boshier releases his final investigation report, the Christchurch City Council has released minutes from public-excluded meetings relating to 1992’s council creche closure and the high-profile and long-running Peter Ellis criminal case.

Peter Ellis/ source: Radio NZ

Peter Boshier/ source: Radio NZ

The site of the Cranmer Centre where the former creche was located.

A former Creche worker, whose house was raided by Police in 1992, lost her job as a result of the closure. She made her feelings evident to the author, saying the experience had destroyed her and her husband’s lives in part because she was never again able to find work involving children.

All together 12 creche workers lost their jobs after the creche was closed and the council later won the employment case on appeal. This followed a council vote in a closed meeting. The successful appeal overturned the Employment Court’s award of compensation and legal costs.

The Christchurch City Council admitted it had kept minutes from minutes from four public excluded meetings in 1992 and 1995 relating to the creche, but refused to release them, claiming it was protecting the former creche workers’ right to privacy and legal professional privilege.

Today, in an about turn, the council has released three out of the four sets with redactions, after Boshier provided his preliminary analysis and investigation of council’s application of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) in this instance.

Boshier’s preliminary 2024 report throws into the spotlight the council’s progress towards greater “openness” since 2019 specifically around the integrity of its decisions to withhold material from members of the public.

The release and investigation also follow Boshier’s 2019 investigation into council’s compliance and practice with the LGOIMA.

In that report Boshier “identified serious concerns about the Council’s leadership and culture, and its commitment to openness and transparency. …a number of Council staff raised concerns about the behaviour of some members of the then Executive Leadership Team, and alleged methods to control certain types of information in order to keep negative information about the Council from the public and/or elected members. This led to a perception amongst staff that some members of the Executive Leadership Team were not supportive of openness and transparency”.

In it, Boshier criticised former chief executive Karleen Edwards and the council recorded 16 areas for improvement and 35 specific actions.

The Boshier investigation again brings into question council’s progress towards greater “openness”.

The Council Creche Closure and Employment Court Case

In 1992, the 11 Civic Creche workers were drawn into the Ellis case that saw a unfounded child sex abuse allegations being levelled at them. All lost their jobs in March that year following the creche’s closure. The exact circumstances of the closure are still unclear but the council maintained the workers had been made redundant.

One former Creche worker made her feelings evident to the author, saying the experience had destroyed her and her husband’s lives in part because she was never again able to find work involving children.

She and the other former workers won their employment case in 1995. That saw the Employment Court award them compensation for unjustified dismissal and their legal costs. This left the council with a bill of more than a million dollars.

The Council Refuses to Release Public Excluded Meeting Minutes

In February 2023, The Wigram (the NZR’s predecessor) asked for “all council meeting minutes related to the Peter Ellis case, the civic crèche and the crèche workers who were made redundant, including from any publically excluded meetings”.

The council admitted that between 1992 and 1995 the council met four times to discuss the Creche and the Creche legal case. On each occasion, the council excluded the public from discussions and decision-making. The 1992 meetings happened in the wake of the Creche closure and the 1995 meetings the court’s decision in favour of the Creche workers.

In March 2023, the council refused to release the minutes on the grounds it would reveal the identity of the former workers.

In October 2024, the Ombudsman confirmed it had communicated with the Christchurch City Council.

“The Council has decided not to release these minutes because they could identify former crèche workers. The Council considers that this would be potentially distressing and damaging to the privacy of those individuals, due to the high profile nature of the criminal investigations that took place into sexual abuse at the crèche and the public scrutiny that was involved.”

While the council expressed concern for the Creche workers welfare, it made no mention of its successful legal challenge that saw the Court of Appeal overturn the Employment Court verdict and the former workers losing their bid for reparations.

The Boshier Analysis