Local press: KCDC attempted intimidation and silencing of Kapiti ratepayer
KCDC police state tactics
I was visited by a police constable on 28 September, who handed me a copy of Section 4 of the Harassment Act 1997, and copies of flyers and a poster published by me, critical of council lies and defamation.
A complaint was supposedly made by Cr Diane Ammundsen in regard to a flyer she allegedly had delivered to her letterbox. Although I and several other
ratepayers have handed flyers outside KCDC premises on Rimu Road, any other
flyers have presumably been letterboxed by other ratepayers who have found the flyers of sufficient public interest. Coincidentally, Cr Ammundsen is the subject of a complaint by this writer, filed with the Ombudsman, concerning her faking of an “affadavit” (sic) containing untruthful allegations.
The issue is mainly in regard to my having been falsely accused of chasing Cr Holborow with my walking stick in chambers on 26 February and of having a threatening manner towards staff in the foyer on the way out, resulting in my being trespassed from council premises. Complaints of misconduct under the Code of Conduct against Crs. Ross Church, Janet Holborow, Diane Ammundsen, Penny Gaylor, Gavin Welsh, Murray Bell and Michael Scott, as all being complicit in lies and defamation, were rejected on their own collective vote, on the basis that standing orders supersede the Code of Conduct (although the main element of the complaints did not allegedly occur during a council meeting).
This latest ploy by Council is another breach of common law and the Bill of
Rights, which guarantees the right to distribute information anywhere at any time in the public interest. Again it shows that this council fears transparency and public scrutiny. It is telling as to its character that KCDC attempts to use the ploy of the Harassment Act to prevent public accountability of representatives who are supposedly elected to serve the public and to be accountable to Kapiti residents.
This is another means of intimidating Kapiti ratepayers in general, having first used the trespass act against myself, and subsequently the warning of trespass against three ratepayers at the 27 August misconduct hearings. This is an unequivocal message to the public that should they question KCDC or councillors this can be deemed as “harassment”, and a visit from police might occur.
The KCDC complaint is itself harassment, and it is disturbing that the police should have been used in such a shameful manner to suppress legitimate and entirely factual criticism. It is tin-pot governance Zimbabwe style.
I am hoping that Kapiti police can organise a meeting of conciliation between KCDC and myself to resolve the issues amicably, but doubt that KCDC has the integrity. A statement has been sent by this writer to Snr. Sgt Anita Dixon requesting police intervention to help in this matter.
K.R. Bolton
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We have not seen any mailboxed flyers referred to, although the photo on the front page of the Kapiti Observer at the time contained what seems to be the poster mentioned.
For interest, the section of the Harassment Act that Dr Bolton refers to is shown below. We investigated the provisions of the Act ourselves in 2013 because of the behaviour of a certain property developer’s unsavory employees in our neighbourhood in Waikanae.
Basically, this Act covers threats of physical violence and physical intimidation, and certain things need to be done by one or more specified persons within a specified time period. Unfortunately, there is no provision in NZ law for civil harassment as there is in American law, for example.
If the complaint against Dr Bolton only consists of what he states, then it has no basis under this Act.
Here is the ‘White Ribbon’ leaflet referred to. It does concern us that “Standing Orders” should supersede the Code of Conduct, as decided by a majority vote, and agree with the comments by Councilors David Scott and Gurunathan as quoted. A ruling on this by either the Ombudsman or the Local Government Commission is needed.
Thanks for putting up the white ribbon flyer.
The matter of council procedure on the complaints, including the rationale about standing orders, has been referred to the Ombudsman, as had Cr Ammundsen’s ‘affadavit’ and the procedure for trespassing me. What I think is significant is that Ammundsen’s phoney affadavit was sent to me by Tamsin Evans as a genuine affidavit. When I tried to raise this matter with council all hell broke loose and I was expelled from the chamber and served a trespass notice two days later, after I objected to Murray Bell using councillor’s response time (during which ratepayers do not have right of reply) to call me a ‘bully,’ ‘disingenuous’ etc. Very gutless, I thought.
Also, the Law Society has accepted my complaint in regard to Michael Scott, re. his lying about having witnessed me chase Holborow, when he was in the lounge chatting with David Scott, and his having misdirected council on standing orders (specifically, the events occurred at lunch recess and therefore not covered by standing orders regardless. He was trying to be too clever by ‘alf).
I came here 20 years ago from Petone for a better life for my son. What a hell-hole under Church and Co. My wife came here 18 years ago suffering form PTSD from a prior marriage, from which it took her about 7 years to recover. What these scoundrel’s still don’t realise is that
I do not back down from bullies and cowards – ever. Masses of folk have fought and died for English common law over centuries; I am not going to remain silent while it is dumped on by 7 tin-pot narcissists and a couple of inept senior staff.
regards
Kerry Bolton
You did well to get a complaint accepted by the Law Society! It receives about 1,800 complaints a year about the country’s 12,000 lawyers (most involving other people’s money), but it only does something about 15% of them. As our lawyer says, the Law Society is there to protect lawyers, not hold them accountable, and that situation has to change. We are in the process of making recommendations to the Minister of Justice about the way in which complaints about lawyers are handled.
Thank you to Waikanae Watch for publishing this article. It is refreshing in an environment cluttered with Classic Spin.
The current “crying wolf” complaint seems to have a strong resonance with the alleged threat to Councillor Holborow that commenced this long saga.
As quoted in the leaflet the Mayor said “I find it very unlikely that a group of very well respected councillors would suddenly become bullying, lying … So I reject it utterly”.
Unfortunately, highly credible witnesses saw Councillor Holborow provoke Dr Bolton yet he did not physically threaten her or anyone else with his walking stick. The Mayor has seemingly long had little regard for learning the truth. For Councillor Gaylor to claim that Holborow was threatened by Dr Bolton when in fact the opposite occurred has made normally mild people angry for a long time. The Mayor’s assertion of his inner cabal doing no wrong effectively calls anyone who says otherwise, liars.
This current stunt by Councillor Amundsen is simply one more “crying wolf” tactic. The Mayor is right in one respect, his cabal councillors would not suddenly ”become bullying, lying” because that is how they have long behaved.
Saga Update : I had an amiable and informative chat with Snr Sgt Anita Dixon. She clarified matters very well, and stated that police would not be used to interfere with my right to criticise council lies and corruption. Of particular interest is that when she approached council with the suggestion of mediation this was rebuffed by CE Dougherty. That’s the type of mentality running the place.
Penny Gaylor announced a couple of weeks back that she was planning to stand for the Kapiti seat on the Greater Wellington Regional Council next year — that may mean she doesn’t intend to seek reelection to the KCDC. Frankly, she shouldn’t be standing for either position. The same can be said about Cr Holborow.