He insists on being referred to as "Your Worship", threatened to leak damaging material about his own staff to media, and sacked his deputy after she stood up to him.

Now Westland District Council mayor Bruce Smith's unusual behaviour, revealed in a tranche of leaked emails, has drawn comparisons with US President Donald Trump.

Smith presides over one of the largest, most sparsely populated local authorities in the country, which stretches 400kms from Hokitika to Fiordland.

GEORGE HEARD/STUFF Franz Josef's sewage and waste water ponds were at the centre of a Serious Fraud Office investigation.

Stuff obtained a cache of private emails between the mayor, councillors, then-chief executive Tanya Winter as well as others outside of council in late 2016, which show his 12-month reign has been beset by infighting and abuse towards his staff.

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* Cake decorator's firm awarded $7m contract

* Complaint over Bruce Smith's behaviour

* Westland CEO Tanya Winter suspended

The leaked emails show concern at Smith's conduct in council, including allegations of humiliating council staff and ordering one citizen to defy a council abatement notice

SUPPLIED Westland District Council executive team in happier times. Gary Borg, Diane Maitland, Tanya Winter, Vivek Goel and Jim Ebenhoh. Three executives have since left.

Smith forwarded some of the confidential council emails to people outside of council such as local businessman Ian Hustwick, former council executive Richard Simpson, local media, and former National MP and Mayor Maureen Pugh.

At the beginning of his tenure in October last year Smith instructed councillors to stand when speaking at the council table, but if he stood anyone else speaking must sit down. Smith later retracted this demand.

In a later email, which Smith confirmed as correct, Winter instructed staff that Smith insisted on being addressed as "Your Worship."

STUFF Westland Mayor Bruce Smith campaigned on transparency and is very active on social media.

Winter also told staff that if the mayor was not satisfied with the speed at which staff replied to his requests, he would leak information to the media.

"If we are tardy in responding we can expect something in the media we maybe didn't want, because the mayor will go ahead and get info there whether we are ready or not," she said.

In March, a Stuff investigation revealed how a new business run by a cake decorator, which had no track record in waste management, won a Westland District Council project to build a $7 million sewage plant in Franz Josef.

JOANNE CARROLL/STUFF An extraordinary meeting will be held at the Westland District Council offices in Hokitika on Tuesday.

The process was overseen by Vivek Goel, the council's assets manager who stood down when the Serious Fraud Office began investigating.

Chief executive Tanya Winter resigned over the controversy.

Since Smith took over in October last year at least four out of Westland's nine councillors have expressed concern over Smith's treatment of council staff. A complaint was laid with the auditor-general over his conduct.

GEORGE HEARD/STUFF Vivek Goel, the former Westland District Council assets and engineering manager.

Matters came to a head in late October when Hokitika's Sunset Point, between the Hokitika River and the sea, started eroding faster than usual.

Smith pushed his own plan to restore the spit, which involved taking rock from the end of the spit to buttress the rest and allowing to river to naturally erode the end of the point. He threatened to relegate it to "emergency works" if his plan did not go ahead, which councils are entitled to do.

Winter wrote back that Smith's plan would only make the problem worse. She emphasised that the council did not have either money for emergency works or a resource consent, and Smith's plan would expose old refuse under the spit.

Smith replied that it was "not Winter's decision to make."

Councillor David Carruthers emailed back saying that Winter was only acting on the instruction of councillors, and then urged Smith to restrain himself.

"I don't think getting stuck into our staff all the time, or treating Tanya like a child, is going to help us resolve what is a very sensitive and difficult issue.

"We all need together [sic] without this constant polarisation of staff against us," he said.

Former deputy mayor Helen Lash, also warned the mayor about "belittling" the regional council in the media and urged that they as a council "conduct ourselves in an appropriate manner."

Another incident in December, which was not referred to in the leaked emails, showed Lash raised concerns over Smith's behaviour.

"I'm not comfortable with staff (eg. Museum) being referred to and commented on to the level seen at the last meeting.

"This was embarrassing and humiliating to them. They have been loyal and dedicated employees that have done nothing to deserve the kind of condemnation they received at the meeting," she said.

A week later, on New Year's Day, Smith sacked Lash as deputy mayor. He has since reinstated her.

When contacted about the material within the emails, Lash said they were "deeply concerning."



"It potentially creates serious compounding questions as to the level of what has been shared with people outside of council that have no entitlement to this information.

"Some answers will need to be sought and some clarification gained," she said.

Lash confirmed that regular comparisons had been drawn between Smith and United States President Donald Trump.

Smith declined to comment on the emails.

In further leaked emails, Smith forbade councillors from making statements to the media after council had passed resolutions, citing the code of conduct.

In an email to all councillors and Winter, Smith singled out councillor Gray Eatwell.

"Staff comments and (councillor) comments on passed resolutions of Council are not allowed and breach our code of conduct. Gray it must not happen again," the mayor wrote in bolded letters.

The Westland District Council's Code of Conduct for council only bans contrary views if the councillor making them implies they were part of the majority vote.

Smith also ordered a West Coast resident to ignore a council staff resource consent request.

Just before Christmas 2016 council ordered a resident to remove a sign attached to a trailer because he didn't have the appropriate resource consent, otherwise he would receive an abatement notice.

Smith then emailed the man telling him to leave it there because council staff were being inconsistent with their application of regulations.

Winter was concerned about what would happen as a result and cited the other signage examples used by Smith.

"NZTA (New Zealand Transport Authority) will ask why the Council is turning a blind eye to unconsented signage on the state highway. We will see a proliferation of signs emerge," she said.

Smith was unhappy with Winter's response.

"I specifically told you not to use these as ammunition to create an all out war against these sign owners, rather as a guide to assist you. You chose to ignore my request."