The Civic Creche Case: Ombudsman Probe Underway into Secret Council Meetings
Former Mayor Vicki Buck denies the councillors and herself had any involvement in the Creche case, while the Council refuses access to 4 secret meeting and committee minutes from her tenure.
The Ombudsman is probing the Christchurch City Council’s 2023 refusal to release minutes relating to the 1990s Civic Creche case that have not seen the light of day in more than quarter of a century.
In February this year, then Mayor Vicki Buck (1989 to 1998) denied the council was in any way involved in the Creche case.
Vicki Buck (the Christchurch City Council)
“[T]here was no input into this from any elected members,” she wrote. “[T]he police would only then deal with the then city manager ..I guess they didnt think it was an issue for governance..No thanks to interview have never thought of any of them guilty”.
But in March the council revealed that four secret meetings did take place in 1992 and 1995, when Buck was mayor, in relation to the Creche case in the wake of the Council’s decision to close the centre.
The site of the Cranmer Centre which housed the council owned Civic Creche.
It refused to release the minutes “to protect the privacy of natural persons” and “maintain legal professional privilege”.
The secret council and committee minutes could reveal whether the council was entitled in 1992 to sack 13 teachers and two cleaners and give the former workers new grounds for appealing the 1995 Court Appeal decision that denied them compensation.
In court, then Chief Executive John Gray denied the Police told him about the child sex abuse allegations regarding the former Creche workers and maintained the Ministry of Education left him with no other option than to close the Civic Creche. The minutes could show what Police told Gray, what the councillors knew, and whether Gray told the court the truth.
In March 2023, the council refused all requests to release any meeting minutes it holds about the Creche. After making initial contact with outgoing Chief Executive, Dawn Baxendale, on 19 September 2023 the Ombudsman commenced its investigation.
7 and 21 September 1992 Secret Minutes
In 1992 the Peter Ellis and Civic Creche case exploded onto New Zealand’s screens and newspapers amid rumours of underground paedophile rings and a determined Police witch hunt to weed out supposed child abusers operating within the council- owned creche.
Peter Ellis (Stuff)
On 2 September Chief Executive John Gray met with the Police, Ministry of Education and Department of Social Welfare. Police met with a MOE representative and showed him manilla folders that held the children’s statements and the case notes. Author of A City Possessed, Lynley Hood, concluded the meeting happened in Gray’s office in Gray’s presence.
Gray closed the Civic creche that day and on 3 September gave the councillors and Mayor Vicki Buck a private memo.
On 7 September the councillors and mayor held a closed doors meeting about the Creche case. The council held a second secret meeting on 21 September.
22 March and 24 May 1995 Secret Minutes
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