Stephens Cairns' Two Hats

Letter to the ODT:

Otago regional councillors Gerry Eckhoff and Bryan Scott are right to pursue ORC chairman Stephen Cairns over the appropriateness of his dual ORC and real estate roles. Either actual or perceived conflicts of interest are something any organisation has to be vigilant about.
It is on public record that Mr Cairns has acted for many years for multimillionaire developer Earl
Hagaman, as his real estate agent. Mr Hagaman owns a very large portfolio of property throughout the city, including the largest proportion of stadium land until it was sold to the Dunedin City Council. There is nothing wrong about this, per se, but to have a real estate
agent, Mr Cairns, in his other position as ORC chairman is simply not right.
Being chairman of the ORC places Mr Cairns in a very powerful andvinfluential position. The argument that he is entitled to an outside job is only partially true. If Mr Cairns was a hairdresser, owning his own salon, there is no likely conflict of interest having such an outside job. The problem here is he is a real estate agent.

Peter Attwooll
City Rise
[This letter was referred to Stephen Cairns, who did not wish to comment.]

There may be a Code of Conduct complaint at the Otago Regional Council arising out of this issue.
In March, Stephen Cairns denied a conflict of interest.