A day for reports

Today may see three reports released – the Rebstock report into the MFAT leak, the EY Australia report into Chorus and possibly the EY NZ report into Len Brown.

However it seems Brown is trying to get the reported changed or delayed. The Herald reports:

The use of hotel rooms by Mayor Len Brown is believed to be at the centre of a legal wrangle holding up the release of the Ernst & Young report into any use of council resources during the mayor’s extra-marital affair with Bevan Chuang.

The Herald understands Mr Brown was not impressed when the first draft of the report raised his use of rooms outside the handful of times he booked into hotels for sex with his 32-year-old mistress.

The mayor is known to have used hotel rooms when he had late-night and early-morning commitments in the city, which came up as part of an exhaustive investigation by Ernst & Young (now EY).

The details of what the investigators found is not known, but Mr Brown is taking legal advice after being handed a copy of the draft review on Friday to ensure it is factually accurate and provide feedback.

I’ve heard that the report asked the hotels to provide details of when the Mayor stayed and who paid. The hotels said they need a privacy release from the Mayor to provide this info, and the Mayor has refused. Now this is just gossip, but if true it calls into question the Mayor’s insistence he never took free rooms. If you refuse to allow the hotels to confirm this, then people will be sceptical.

Yesterday, Mr Brown’s office refused to comment on the review, except to say the process was in Mr McKay’s hands. His staff would not say who Mr Brown’s legal adviser was and whether the mayor or ratepayers were picking up the tab.

if the Mayor and the CEO have both engaged expensive lawyers, and ratepayers are paying for both, then the costs continue to mount.