Cr Murphy owns up to resignation letter leak

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 682, 15 April 1997, Page 3

Cr Murphy owns up to resignation letter leak

Joe Murphy, Ruapehu District councillor for Ohura, was the source of the leak to the media of council chief executive Cliff Houston's letter of resignation, he has confirmed. Mr Murphy told the Bulletin he did not intend to be secretive about the release of the letter and was also coming forward now because he did not want other councillors to take the blame. He said he will apologise to the councillors and the mayor for any embarrassment at their next meeting. Mr Murphy said he released the letter because he wanted the "facts of the matter" to be known, having been disappointed with the press release put out by the mayor. "It did nothing to quell the rumours to do with the insurance thing,'-' he said, "it made me quite wild." He said he does not agree with the mayor, Weston Kirton, regarding the reasons for the council accepting Mr Houston's resignation. He had been asked by the media "did he (Mr Houston) go or was he sacked", so released the letter to show that Mr Houston had chosen to resign. "The council had his resignation letter in their hands and they accepted it, it's as simple as that."