Invercargill City councillor Nigel Skelt has resigned from his role. Photo: Office of Governor General / John Mathews
An Invercargill City councillor accused of sexually harassing a teenage employee has resigned, triggering a by-election.
Last week a teenager said she resigned from her job at ILT Stadium Southland because she felt unsafe after comments from former stadium manager Nigel Skelt, a sitting councillor.
In her resignation letter, the 18-year-old said Skelt suggested she would enjoy jelly wrestling naked and she did not feel safe working with him.
Correspondence including details of a confidentiality deal was released under the Local Government Act this week.
On Thursday, councillor Ria Bond said she refused to work with Skelt as it went against her principles.
"I have two children and they are my moral compass and if I think it's okay for me to work with someone that has publicly been found to have misbehaved in this manner, then I'm telling my children that this issue of sexual harassment is ok."
Bond issued an ultimatum - either he left office or she would.
The Invercargill City Council confirmed Skelt resigned on Thursday night.
Bond said she was "elated that common sense finally found Nigel Skelt".
"I'm elated that he actually has resigned. The time it's taken him to resign from the council was too long, and in terms of my stance, I was prepared to absolutely resign from the council.
"No person should be forced to work with someone who has done the things that he's done."
It said the by-election was expected to cost approximately $120,000.
The last by-election was in 2020-2021 following the resignation of Toni Biddle.
More details on the by-election will be provided in the future.
Skelt and his family did not wish to make further comment, the council said.
More allegations of sexist behaviour
The recent conversations about sexual harassment has encouraged another councillor to come forward about the sexist behaviour she has experienced regularly since taking office in 2016
Alex Crackett has called out the lack of disciplinary process to penalise sexist and misogynistic behaviour from elected members.
"One of my colleagues, he used to refer to me as 'his lovely assistant', and you know, we were elected on the same merit. We sit at the same table with the same rights and responsibilities. But for anyone and everyone who was to listen, he would just call me, introduce me as 'his lovely assistant', and that has quite a profound impact on a young woman's psyche."
Trying to speak out was so stressful and unproductive, and the system let bad behaviour slide, she said.
"We have a code of conduct for elected members that would be to escalate it to the mayor. But, in some cases, if the mayor is part of the problem, where do you go if that's the case? So I think the process needs to be looked at and what mechanisms are available in the Local Government Act."
The bar was too high for elected members to be removed as they needed to be convicted of an offence with a jail term greater than two years to be disqualified, Crackett said.
"I think my experience has shown that some people and some men in particular have absolutely no interest in changing a system that suits them so well."
In response to Crackett speaking out about experiencing sexist behaviour, councillor Peter Kett told the Otago Daily Times that women receiving comments about their looks was just a part of life.
He has since apologised, releasing a statement through the Invercargill City Council on Friday morning.
"I have been informed that what I said was inappropriate, misguided and offensive," Kett said.
"I am not a woman and I can not speak for how women feel. I would also like to apologise to the family of the teacher I spoke about in my comments. It was wrong of me to speak of her like that."
He said he was grateful for his colleagues and council staff for helping him to learn how to reflect on this.
"You are never too old to learn something new and I urge all of the men reading this to have a think about the way they treat women. Sometimes you have to make a mistake in order to learn something important and that is what has happened to me today."
Bond said she was gobsmacked by his remarks.
She urged the council to address issues of sexist behaviour and inappropriate workplace behaviour amongst its elected members.
"By actually getting an outside person to come in and educate all of us what's appropriate workplace behaviour and what's not. It's timely we do this given we've just stepped out of a crisis and it's timely that we're all reminded of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable with how you treat your fellow colleagues."
