Auckland City Council flayed by Parliament

The Auckland City Council has been savaged in a report by Parliament’s Environment an Local Government Select Committee. Some extracts:

We consider Auckland City Council’s description of the price rises for Metrowater customers as “modest” and “small” in the Statement of Proposal to have been misleading and to have led to the anxiety and concerns behind the petition.

We consider that the scale of the charitable payments engineered by the city council from Metrowater undermined the intent of the constitution of Metrowater when it was established by the council. The council should have revised the constitution rather than abusing the provisions providing for charitable payments.

We consider that the council could have kept the public better informed about the charitable payments, the rise in water rates, and the decision made to direct the payment from Metrowater into upgrading Auckland’s stormwater system. In future the council should ensure that the public is better informed and that its decisionmaking process is transparent.

We consider that the use of charitable payments in this way, and to this extent, is not best practice, and emphasise our concern that it should not be adopted by other local authorities.

We strongly advise Auckland City Council to reconsider its requirement for
charitable payments from Metrowater in the years 2007 to 2017.

Now be aware this report was unanimous on a select committee with National, Labour and Green MPs. So for Dick Hubbard to claim it was politically motivated is self serving spin.

The Herald reports that the only person on the City Council left supporting the policy, after this report, is Dick Hubbard. Can one imagine another three years of such leadership? Brian Rudman labels the Mayor’s position as suicidal.