I BUMPED into a councillor in the Christchurch Civic Offices car park on Tuesday while I putting money into the meter.

I thought about not paying, but if anyone is likely to get a parking ticket anywhere near the Civic Offices, it’s probably me.

We were both heading inside to a council meeting on those controversial Highcliffe beach huts.

She was hurrying to participate as a leading and well respected member of the ruling Conservative group. I was simply to observe, rather than to report. You may think I need to get a life.

We talked briefly about leaks. As you do. Car parks are quite good for that kind of thing.

In the 1976 film All the President’s Men, shadowy source Deep Throat (later revealed as former FBI chief Mark Felt) met Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in an underground car park to spill the beans on Watergate.

The administration of Christchurch council can’t be compared in any sense to that of Richard Nixon.

There’s no wiretapping, breaking and entering, obstruction of justice or tampering with tape recording machines, no smoking guns, at least as far as I know. (Having said that, the recording machine broke down half way through the meeting apparently).

But there is one similarity.

The Nixon White House was obsessed with leaks. Paranoid in fact.

They even had a team to plug them. They were called the Plumbers. They were not very successful.

Christchurch council is also obsessed with leaks. And with good reason. It leaks like a sieve.

But let’s face it, leaks are everywhere. Prosecutors and defence attorneys leak information; negotiators leak to increase their power; Chancellors leak bits of their budgets. Governments leak to influence what others do or to test out an idea. Trial balloons they call it.

Is it ever ethical to leak? Is there sometimes an obligation to leak? Is it in the public interest?

I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked who the source of our ‘inside’ stories is.

On the internal political rows, the beach hut fiasco, the ‘Jettygate’ controversy, plans for a marina at the civic offices, information from private meetings, even information about meetings we are not even supposed to know about.

Even the unfailingly courteous chief executive has asked us to reveal the source, even going as far as calling the police to seek their advice.

They weren’t interested.

Several councillors think they know our sources, but these things are never as straightforward as they seem. Sometimes it’s wiser and less lazy to look beyond the rather obvious.

So here’s a quick guide to how leaks work, for anyone who’s interested.

1: There’s rarely just one source. Sometimes it can be up to half a dozen. It is in our case. And some may have no direct connection to the organisation in question. Multiple sources corroborate and they often talk to each other as well as to the press.

2: Sometimes sources can be the last person you’d think.

3: Some sources can hide in plain view, by offering up nuggets in full sight at a meeting or other gathering without anyone having a clue what’s going on.

4: Leaks can be made for a variety of reasons. Because someone thinks something ought to be in the public domain or they just don’t believe an organisation is being open, accountable, transparent or being run properly.

5: It is surprising how often computer keyboards or digital devices go wrong, so that emails end up at the wrong (or right) address.

6: Leaks on the same subject can be made to different journalists by different people.

7: Leaks are most often used when an organisation is too secretive or a select few are aggregating too much power to themselves and bypassing the democratic processes.

8: And leaking can be done anywhere.

In coffee shops, in the council chamber, over the phone, by letter, by text and of course...in car parks.