Communications staff were told to tell NZME ”Marty said he won’t be releasing the list of invitees, that they can go to the Ombudsman”.

NZME referred the matter to the Ombudsman last July.

Chief Ombudsman John Allen’s June 17 decision recommended the council “reconsider” NZME’s request “and make a new decision”.

While it may have been a privately sponsored event, it was organised and hosted by the council, he said.

Allen, who began his term as Chief Ombudsman in March, noted the council’s assessment of the use of staff time “as minimal and non-disruptive”.

However, “public money and resources, through the contribution of Council staff’s work hours, were still used in organising the event”.

Allen said the Privacy Commissioner considered the privacy interest of invitees and attendees to be “low” and there did not appear to be “any inherent or immediate risk” that public knowledge of this could create that would heighten the privacy interest.

Allen considered the draft list of invitees, “a fair number” of which held “prominent public positions”.

“Given these factors, there appears to be a stronger public interest in releasing this information than the low privacy interest in withholding.”

Allen noted the council was governed by four commissioners at the time. He acknowledged the council’s comments that the celebration was “partially to farewell the outgoing commissioners”.

“However, it remains that for the past three years, the people of Tauranga were effectively denied their elected representation in favour of appointed governance.

“The Ombudsman is likely to consider that this heightens the public interest in transparency, and also in accountability by way of council time spent on a non-essential celebration.”

Section 7(2)(a) of the Act provides official information may be withheld if it was necessary to “protect the privacy of natural persons”.

He said the council “improperly applied” this section to withhold the names of invitees, attendees, and sponsors from NZME.

In an email on July 9, the council’s democracy services team leader, Kath Norris, said the council had “reconsidered” its decision and sent a list of 240 invitees and 10 sponsors.

Norris said there was no attendance list or registration at the event, “and therefore no definitive record of who attended, or whether other people came in place of someone on the list”.

The guest list showed 40 council staff and their partners were invited. Other invitees included MPs, business leaders, construction and property development leaders, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council staff, and iwi leaders.

The event’s 10 sponsors were economic development agency Priority One, Tauranga Business Chamber and property development companies or groups Twenty Two, Willis Bond, LT McGuinness, Quayside, Watts & Hughes, Urban Task Force, Carrus, and Panorama Ltd.

Carrus founder Sir Paul Adams revealed last year that the company was a sponsor and said the party was a chance to celebrate the “long-overdue” revitalisation of the CBD and to thank the commissioners for kick-starting it.

New council offices and a $306m civic precinct redevelopment were among projects the commission approved during its four-and-a-half years governing the city council. A newly elected council began its term in August.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.