Breaking: Deputy Mayor Barker resigns from the role

'It is untenable for me to continue this role in the current circumstances'

It was shaping up as a boring Monday night, when all hell broke loose.

Dunedin deputy mayor Sophie Barker has resigned from the role, citing a difficult working relationship with Mayor Jules Radich.

Barker, who was first elected to the Dunedin City Council in 2019, was appointed deputy mayor by Radich in October.

‘’Cr Barker has a proven track record as an astute, strategic, hard-working and conscientious councillor and I’m thrilled to appoint her to the position of deputy mayor,” Radich said of the appointment.

“Along with her skills, Cr Barker was the top-polling councillor candidate in the recent election, which demonstrates the confidence the community has in her to deliver.’’

But fast-forward 11 months and that relationship between the pair has been fractured.

Here is the resignation letter in full:

This letter is to inform you that I am resigning as Deputy Mayor. It is untenable for me to continue this role in the current circumstances. The breach of the confidential Council meeting on 29th August is the last straw in what has been a series of breaches by the Mayor when he is giving extemporaneous interviews. It is hard to imagine that these have not undermined the integrity of the Council. I also believe after laying the Code of Conduct it will be difficult to maintain a close working relationship with the Mayor. I will continue to do everything I can as a councillor to better the city and community I represent and uphold the standards they deserve.

Radich has been approached for comment.

The friction came over the mayor’s handling of Barry Williams, the chair of the Strath Taieri Community Board.

That comes after an independent investigator Steph Dyhrberg, found a material breach of council’s code of conduct had occurred.

As Stuff reported last week, that involved Williams calling a hotel worker, who has since left the Middlemarch town, a ‘’stupid black b****’’.

That led to the matter being discussed in a non-public part of a council meeting, which cited the need to protect the identity of the victim.

Council then decided to send Williams a letter, which was later made public, and which asked Williams to resign.

‘’Council is appalled by your behaviour’’, the letter to Williams said, which was signed by Mayor Radich.

The released information then added council ‘’will not be making any further comment on the matter’’.

But the following day, Radich told RNZ ‘’it happened in a pub, and he didn’t even remember that it had happened, so it was just a relatively minor thing’’.

“’Certainly the people who overheard the incident didn't report it or bring it to anyone's attention,’’ Radich told RNZ, adding it was word-of-mouth which led to the complaint.

‘’Here he was out in a public setting and has lowered his standards so it's only appropriate that we do censure him and it's just unfortunate it has happened.’’

Radich told RNZ: ‘’I think it's not beyond the ability of anyone to come back from such a thing’’.

But that minimising of what happened has led to growing disquiet with the mayor, and his handling of the matter.

That led to a later statement where the first-term mayor apologised ‘’unreservedly’’ for those comments.

“’To be clear - a racist comment is always a racist comment,’’ Radich said in another statement.

But Radich’s handling of the matter is understood to be behind a Code of Conduct complaint against the mayor, which is being instigated by Barker and supported by Cr Jim O’Malley.

Details of that complaint have yet to be made public.

The council’s community services committee meets on Tuesday at 10am.

I’ll keep you updated.