29 September 2021
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Elected members' emails being redirected
Enquiry
I understand councillors received a bit of a deluge of emails yesterday stating opposition to Three Waters reform and urging the council to opt out of it.
I understand there were somewhere between 50 - 100 identical emails with this sentiment, all sent from the same email address but signed with a different name, so council officers decided to redirect the emails to a separate inbox where they would be collated and summarised and provided to elected members.
There are some councillors concerned about this decision, and I am writing a story about it today. I have their comments provided at the bottom of this email for the council's right of reply, if desired.
My questions:
- [Clarifying] Is it correct the emails were identical, expressed opposition to Three Waters reform, and were sent from the same email address, signed with different names? Does the re-direction of the emails pertain only to these or to Three Waters-related emails to councillors generally?
- Does the council consider these particular emails spam?
- Can councillors directly access these emails if they wish? Or request access?
- Why did the council make this decision?
[covered in right of reply but just to make sure you don't miss this claim]: Is it true the council has blocked Reynold Macpherson's personal email address from council email addresses due to "security concerns"? What are those security concerns (if so)?
Response
From CE Geoff Williams:
Several councillors contacted the organisation concerned they were being spammed by identical emails from a common address and the solution was offered to redirect these identical emails and provide a summary at a later date. Two elected members have informed us they do not wish these emails to be redirected and will continue receiving them directly.