Hamilton councillor still hasn't apologised for expletive-laden rant

A councillor ordered by his colleagues to apologise for an expletive-laden rant, in which he told a neighbouring mayor to get off her "fat arse", has failed to do so.

Hamilton City Councillor Andrew Bydder was found in breach of the code of conduct and ordered to apologise to Waipā mayor Susan O'Regan for the offensive comments in a public submission.

He was also supposed to make a public apology to IHC and the Cerebral Palsy Society by 17 October, but has not.

Those apologies were sought after Bydder used ableist slurs in the online submission about the placement of a third bridge in Cambridge, where he lives.

Cerebral Palsy Society chairperson Daniel Clay confirmed the organisation had not received an apology from Bydder.

"The word spastic describes a medical condition associated with Cerebral Palsy and should not be used in a derogatory way," Clay said.

"People living with Cerebral Palsy have enough challenges in life without these sorts of comments being made."

Clay said the society agreed with Bydder being censured and hoped he would take time to educate himself about the condition and the Cerebral Palsy community.

"Many of our members are from the Waikato and they don't deserve to hear their elected representatives speak this way."

Hamilton deputy mayor Angela O'Leary, who was leading the process after mayor Paula Southgate excused herself as the initial complainant, sought legal advice on Wednesday over Bydder's failure to comply with the council's recommendations.

O'Leary said she and the council had not been in this position before and she'd hoped Bydder would comply with the resolution.

"In the letter of censure, that on behalf of council I sent to councillor Bydder, it did say in there that more serious consequences could occur if he wasn't prepared to carry out the requests from council.

"One of the things on the table could be that council ask councillor Bydder to tender his resignation but it will be up to council to make that decision."

Bydder said he had ignored the recommendations because the process was corrupt.

"The deadlines have passed. Nothing's happening. I'm not doing anything. I don't believe the council can do anything

"They could ask me to resign - I'm not going to. It's a complete waste of time."

He claimed council staff withheld key evidence from his defence, only releasing part of an Official Information Act request to Bydder after the investigator concluded.

Bydder had requested code of conduct complaints against former councillor Dave Macpherson and the council's responses to those, which he said were much more lenient and set a precedent.

The information was eventually released but Bydder said he didn't receive all of it which disadvantaged his defence.

He said he also would not undertake the conduct training recommended and pointed out he publicly apologised for his rant at a recent council meeting to debate the code of conduct complaint.

Bydder said he was focused on doing his job as a councillor and would continue to use his experience in architecture and the building industry to best serve Hamilton ratepayers.

"To be blunt, I am the only person on council with the competency to do the job. Two thirds of council expenditure is on roads and waters, half the remainder is on property.

"From my background in architecture and property development, I've done all of that, I know what I'm doing."

The first-term councillor said others in council were hopeless and "that's why we're in financial trouble".

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