Ed Said - And moving right along......

I asked a couple of people: “Does the name Jack McKerchar mean anything to you?” All answered in the negative or looked blank and simply shook their heads. Similarly others have asked me “Who is this Jack McKercher character?” I tell them briefly he’s the guy responsible in part for the big cost overrun on the Mangawhai wastewater scheme that’s caused a furore here five or so years ago. Few new residents in the past five years know nor care.

I made these enquiries in light of last week’s announcement that the Employment Court had struck out Kaipara District Council's case against the former council chief executive, seeking damages for alleged breaches of his responsibilities in relation to the management of the Mangawhai community wastewater scheme.

Not only did the contract for the wastewater project have huge holes in it but the whole thing was poorly managed and badly executed to the extent that many aspects of the job were done a second and even a third time, with the CEO blithely writing out cheques to cover these additional costs thus aiding in the accumulation of a $30m overrun (depending on who does the sums).

That said, in 2011 McKerchar retired citing health reasons and taking with him a gratuity of some $240,000. While this attracted the wrath of many, I saw it not quite so black and white. There could have been a fair amount of accrued holiday pay, CEO contracts generally include a ‘performance bonus’ (debateable, I know) and most definitely a fairly sizeable payout if the contract was terminated early, which this was, so he was always going to leave with a healthy final pay cheque.

Many have mentioned the non-too-small matter of integrity, however integrity is not always dispersed equally – just read our story in this issue and you’ll see what I mean. The long and short of it is that McKerchar had the nous to negotiate a watertight employment contract for himself, something the then Council had failed to do in respect of the wastewater scheme. A confidential agreement between both parties (KDC and McKerchar) precluded them from suing each other and the Council from bringing employment-related proceedings against him. Thus the deed provided an absolute defence for McKerchar. End of story.

The most bizarre aspect of all this, in my humble opinion, is the fact that, assuming the CEO’s employment contract ran to, say, a dozen A4 pages of size 12 font, it could reasonably be read and absorbed in an hour and must have been examined a hundred times by the legal eagles, auditors, Commissioners and all their advisors over a period of a couple of years. So how is it that they all failed to pick up on this ‘confidential

agreement’ which made any court action a complete waste of time and money? The horse had already bolted – long since.

Let’s just consider that chapter closed and move on to better things, namely establishing an infrastructure to cope with a rapidly growing Mangawhai community. In fact, if you think Mangawhai is growing now, then, in the immortal words of black American singer Al Jolson, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” Check out our story and let’s have your feedback. After all, it’s your town.

Rob