Kiwiblog

A reader just reminded me by e-mail of this post made a year ago in August 2010:

An interesting speculation has reached me. Andrew Williams will of course not be elected Auckland Mayor. I doubt he’d even make 5%.  He is unlikely to even make Council – his sole chance is that 15 people are standing in his ward so one may be able to get elected off a very small percentage.

So what will he do if he is not on Council? Well he is consumed with a loathing for Rodney Hide, as is Winston Peters. So the whisper I hear is Andrew Williams will be a NZ First candidate in a top six list spot.

We don’t know his list ranking yet, but Williams has been confirmed as a candidate.

Winston told many lies at the weekend, but we will focus on just two of them. The first is that he is not a Klingon, and Whale has proof to the other.

Before we move onto the next lie, enjoy the fact that NZ First has selected Andrew Williams as their candidate for North Shore. They deserve each other.

What I want to focus on is this report from Stuff:

The polls were wrong by 100 per cent in 2002 and 500 per cent in 2005 and again in 2008, Peters said.

This has been widely reported. Once upon a time when a politician made a claim, someone would fact check it. So I’ve done it in this case. I’ve compared NZ First’s actual election results with the average of the polls for the five MMP elections. They are

• 1996 – 13.4% result v 15.0% poll average
• 1999 – 4.3% result v 4.0% poll average
• 2002 – 10.4% result v 9.1% poll average
• 2005 – 5.7% result v 6.0% poll average
• 2008 – 4.1% result v 3.4% poll average

What is really interesting is if you average out the five elections. NZ First on average got 7.6% and the average poll rating immediately prior to the elections was 7.5%.

Polls can be wrong and have been wrong. But not as wrong as Winston’s claims.

Whale has a copy of a story in today’s SST about how North Shore Mayor (for another 12 hours) Andrew Williams failed a roadside alcohol test while driving his Council car on Friday night. The Police won’t say what the result of the evidential breath test was, but presumably he passed that one.

I wonder if Mayor Williams was one of those who signed up the HoS two drinks max campaign?

Jonathan Marshall at the SST reports:

The Auckland Council may have been elected with Len Brown up top but North Shore mayor Andrew Williams is to don his mayoral chains one final time.

Williams has surprised councillors by calling a final meeting which will happen two weeks after the election.

Today North Shore City Council officials confirmed Williams has called an “extraordinary meeting” for October 27. An agenda was expected three days before the meeting. …

Deputy mayor Julia Parfitt said it would not be appropriate for her to comment on Williams’ decision to call a post-election meeting.

“I don’t call the meetings, you would have to speak to the mayor. It certainly wasn’t my choice,” Parfitt said.

She was surprised to learn Williams would be wearing his mayoral regalia.

“I wouldn’t expect him to wear his gown and chain, we have Len Brown as mayor now.”

Maybe he is going to loop the mayoral chains around his waist, and weld them to the Council Chamber so he can’t be evicted?

Should the Councillors wear their rain coats in case he mistakes them for trees?

Not online yet but I am told Len Brown has won the Mayoralty with a pretty large margin, and also that the left hold 11 of the 20 Council seats. I believe C&R have five seats and not sure how the others lie yet.

It’s an over 50% turnout so those who won can claim a good mandate to govern Auckland for the next three years – they have the challenge to make the Super City work, and be an improvement on what was there in the past.

I also understand despite being an incumbent Mayor, Andrew Williams failed to even be elected as a Ward Councillor.

With 95% counted it is huge – 220,000 to 160,000 – a real mandate.

UPDATE: Fuller results now in.

• Andrew Williams got under 1% in his Mayoralty bid. Colin Craig got 40,000 votes – watch him in 2013
• In Rodney, Mayor Penny Webster got elected to Council
• In Albany Michael Goudie and Wayne Walker won. Andrew Williams got a humiliating 4,429 votes only – in 10th place!!!! He did beat Cameron Slater, but Cameron will be very happy as his campaign was about stopping Williams. When before has an incumbent Mayor polled 10th just for a Council spot?
• On the North Shore George Wood stormed him, balanced by Ann Hartley in 2nd place. Two former Mayors.Grant Gillion and Christine Rankin very narrowly behind.
• Waitakere Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse takes first place locally with Sandra Coney 2nd. An unfortunate result some may say!
• Mike Lee crushed opposition in Waitemata and Gulf, beating Tenby Powell and Alex Swney combined
• Noeline Raffills won Whau fauirly comfortably for C&R
• Albert-Eden-Roskill has a split result with Chris Fletcher 1ston 19,500 votes and Cathy Casey 2nd on 14,000. Paul Goldsmith only 250 votes behind.
• Cameron Brewer has a massive victory in Orakei, with 17,000 votes to 10,000 for Doug Armstrong. Congrats Cameron.
• Sadly in Maungakiekie-Tamaki Richard Northey beat the talented Alfred Ngaro by 1,800 votes
• In Howick Sharon Stewart gets 1st with 22,500 votes followed by Jami-Lee Ross on 18,382. Team-mate Dick Quax just behind on 18,045.
• Former Mayor Sir Barry Curtis dips out in the Manurewa-Papakura ward, by 1,000 votes behind Calum Penrose. John Walker another 3,000 votes ahead of him.
• As expected Des Morrison wins in Franklin Ward

And for some of the boards:

• Gary Holmes got elected to the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board, which will upset Andrew Williams even further.
• The Upper Harbour Local Board gets Christine Rankin and Brian Neeson.
• Nick Kearney is one of the few right faces on the Kaipatiki Local Board
• He’s 85 I think but Assid Corban is back on Henderson-Massey Local Board. Future West got none.
• Greg Presland makes the Waitakere Ranges Local Board
• GBI Board Chairman Paul Downey is re-elected to the GBI Board in the regions’ highest turnout race
• Denise Roche tops the poll for Waiheke Board
• City Vision get a majority in the Waitemata Board
• Michael Wood tops the poll for the Puketepapa Board, and his wife Julia Fairey is in third place. They almost form a board quorum
• C&R win 6/7 seats on Oraeki Board
• Neelam Choudary misses out on the Howick Board
• Labour clean sweep the Mangere-Otahuhu Board
• Labour, including Daljit Singh, don;’t win any seats on the Papatoetoe section of Otara-Papatoetoe Board
• Colleen Brown tops the Manurewa Board poll followed by George Hawkins

The SST reports:

Left wing union leader Matt McCarten has performed a triple flip flop over endorsing a candidate for Auckland Council’s Albany ward.

McCarten formed the website supercitypicks.co.nz to help voters select a left-leaning Auckland Council in the upcoming local body elections. …

But yesterday McCarten withdrew his support for Williams entirely.

“Originally I thought progressives should support Andrew Williams. But my leftist and even centrist mates gave me a biff on two fronts,” McCarten wrote.

“That he’s made his city a laughing stock and  he’s totally self absorbed and even his own allies have deserted him. The other reason is that he knows he had no chance to win as mayor and is deliberately drawing votes away from the only other candidate Len Brown who can beat John Banks.

“Privately he claims to support Brown, yet is helping Banks by not telling voters his real position. On that basis he’s a fraud and shouldn’t be supported by progressives.”

McCarten said Slater was “the only other candidate I know in that ward with any chance of winning”. He said the blogger was right of politics but “has a social conscience, does volunteer work and has a good brain”.

Yep that’s right, Matt McCarten did endorse Whale Oil for Council. And he called Andrew Williams a fraud.

One can only imagine the howls of outrage and anguish on the left. Matt’s own UNITE staff probably threatened to picket him. And so he flipped again:

However less than 24 hours later McCarten had withdrawn his support for Slater and replaced it with a new endorsement. “My progressive advisors tell me I should be supporting John Kirikiri as the best of the rest”.

Position No 3.

But, when Stuff called McCarten today to ask why he was making constant changes to his Albany ward endorsements he said he would be removing his tick for Kirikiri and reinstating Williams as the preferred contender.

“I hadn’t done my homework but I have now read all of the candidates’ policies and have decided Williams is the man for the job.”

He said Williams had been “an embarrassment with his behaviour” but had the best policies “and policies are how we should judge the candidates”.

I disagree with Matt. Policies are important. But so is judgement, temperment, and rationality.

Following his removal from McCarten’s endorsement list Williams let rip on Facebook about the well-known union leader.

“He should know better than to make such irresponsible statements about me a sitting mayor. I don’t even know the man, have never had a conversation with him, so it’s extraordinary that he would comment like that. But very telling that he initially endorsed that disturbed psycho nutter Cameron Slater then withdrew it.”

When Williams does rants like that, the term “disturbed psycho nutter” seems like a form of projection.

Wonders never cease. North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams has complained to the Police because he does not like what Cameron Slater says at public meetings. He has also asked the Returning Officer to remove Slater from the ballot, because it seems Cameron is mean to the poor Mayor.

Williams said Slater’s whole campaign was a form of the “stalking” he had endured for over a year.

“He stands up at a meeting and says ‘I will not urinate on a tree, I will not use a credit card in a Takapuna bar, I will not send drunken texts’.”

What makes the Mayor think they are references to him?

“What he has put in his candidate profile is harassment. His whole campaign is focussed on attacking me.”

Yes it is. Labour’s entire 2008 campaign was focussed on attacking John Key. But I don’t think John Key tried to get Helen Clark arrested or struck off the ballot.

Wiliams urged the electoral officer to strike off Slater as a candidate.

Nice to have a Mayor with such a fine regard for elections.

Police confirmed they had received a complaint against Slater but had undertaken not to make comment to the media.

Here are some good question to ask the Police.

1. How many times in the last month has Mayor Williams e-mailed the Police District Commander urging him to arrest Slater?
2. How many of these e-mails were sent after midnight?
3. How many micro-seconds did the Police spend deciding what to do?

I’m in Auckland this afternoon, and going to an Albany Meet the Candidates Meeting. With Williams and Whale both invited to speak, it should be great fun. Come along, if you are free.

It starts at 5 pm in the Dove Theatre at Kristin School (cnr of Rosedale Road and 360 Albany Highway), Albany.

The meeting will hear from mayoral candidates, Albany ward candidates and Upper Harbour board candidates.

Mayor Williams has been talking it up on my Facebook page:

Well, well, well. What happened to Cameron Slater tonight at the Albany Candidates meeting at Paremoremo village? He was a no show. Didn’t turn up. Maybe being that close to a prison was a bit too scarey for Slater, being a convicted criminal as he is now. Or perhaps his WINZ benefit doesn’t stretch as far as petrol al…l the way from Howick to Paremoremo. Maybe he’ll have enough money for petrol to come to Albany tomorrow night. But then again???

Actually the answer quite simply was that Cameron wasn’t invited to speak at the Paremoremo meeting.

Incidentally I checked the timing, and looks like the Facebook post was made just after midnight – the traditional time for e-mails and texts from the Mayor – and now Facebook posts.

iPredict have just launched two stocks on whether Cameron Slater or Andrew Williams will receive more votes in the Albany Ward, for the Auckland Council elections.

The Slater to win more votes stock is at 23c.

The Williams to win more votes stock is at 78c.

Will the incumbent Mayor actually get less votes than a rebel blogger? If you think you know the answer, there is money to be made.

Cactus Kate has a brilliant idea:

I have previously endorsed Cameron Brewer as a candidate for the Auckland Supercity. I now add two more endorsements but only if you vote for them together. What the Supercity needs is checks and balances. There can be no greater check and balance for the incumbent candidate “Mayor” Andrew Williams than to elect in Albany, Cameron Slater aka Whaleoil.

What genius. Can you imagine it – Williams and the Whale having to sit around the same table for three years. Either they’ll become good mates (unlikely) or the Auckland Council will resemble live episodes of the Jerry Springer show. One could televise Council meetings on a pay per view channel.

Cactus also compares their vital stats:

Age: 51 v 41
Born: Hawkes Bay v Fiji
Weight: 110kgs with body paint, 95 without v fighting weight of 100kgs
Height: Scarcely taller than a parking meter v 5 foot 11
Drugs of choice: Alcohol and various prescription drugs v Melatonin and off depression meds
Mental State: Allegedly mad v certifiably mad
Education: Advanced Marketing Management Diploma from the International Marketing Institute of New Zealand v Whaleoil who hasn’t bothered making one up
Religion: Worships at the Gods of Caroma v Christian
Credit Card: Now only a personal one v no credit
Looks: Chubby preppy cheek v Angry Chopper Read
Spouse: Angry Jane v Angrier Spanish Bride
Work history: Diplomat to country where English is not a first language v IT and security
Drives: Black Nissan Maxima v Whaleoil Truck
Children: 24, 21 and 17 vs 14 and 12
Internet Presence: Hasn’t quite got used to it after 6 days blogging v Dominant
Supercity concept: Hates it v Loves it
Walking Style: wobbly lines utilising entire ratepayer resource of pavement v straight line won’t move for anyone
Favourite Attire: Custom fitted short man’s suit v Whaleoil t-shirt
Current employment: Bludging off the ratepayer v Campaigning to bludge off the ratepayer
Favourite Tipple: Anything on stock at GPK v Only when Cactus is in town
Favourite Hobbie: Gardening with his mate Little Andrew v Gardening on Spanish Bride’s orders with a chainsaw and round-up
Favourite MP: Winston Peters v Crusher Collins
Favourite restaurant: GPK v Daikoku looking down on GPK
Pet Hates: Cameron Slater v Winston Peters and Andrew Williams (those two really should have a drink together at GPK sometimes)
Nicknames: Clown/Cock of Campbells Bay, Mad Mayor v Whaleoil
Pets: Cute dog named Rimu v the Black Dog and David Farrar
Favourite Journalist: Late night calls with Jonathan Marshall v Jonathan Marshall……..Finally some common ground
PR/Media handling style: Combative v Combative
Weasel words: “Reducing rates – In the first year as Mayor we reduced the rates increase to 5.9%” v no weasel words
Pressure release: Late night abusive emails v All day abusive internet posts

Whether you’re from the right, the left or the centre – doesn’t the thought of Andrew Williams and Cameron Slater as fellow Albany Councillors for three years tempt you as proof there is karma?

Oh this should be very amusing. Whale Oil has announced he is standing for the Auckland Council in the same ward as Andrew Williams. Whale’s eight pledges are:

Mr Slater’s pledges are that he will NOT:

1. Piss on any trees
2. Sign paint­ings I have not painted
3. Send drunken texts after 11pm
4. Send drunken press releases after 11pm
5. Hold impor­tant meet­ings in bars
6. Vote to fund Brian Rudman’s theatre
7. Put booz­ing with my mates on my coun­cil credit card8. Stop putting piggy noses on trough­ing politicians
8. Punch ambu­lance officers

Can’t wait for the public meetings.

Stuff reports:

North Shore mayor Andrew Williams has threatened legal action against right-wing blogger WhaleOil. …

Williams said he was undergoing “harassment” from WhaleOil which was “entirely politically motivated” and no other local body politician had been subjected to such “dirty politics”.

Williams told Fairfax he had already spoken to the police about possible criminal harassment charges and was seriously considering pursuing such an action.

“I spoke to my wife about it today and think I will,” Williams said.

When I read the headline that Williams was threatening legal action, I assumed he was considering defamation. He has every right to take civil action if he believes Whale Oil has defamed him.

But to try and get the Police to charge a blogger with criminal harassment, just because he says mean things about an elected official on his blog is ridicolous and offensive. It is also arguably defamatory itself. The definition of criminal harassment is:

Every person commits an offence who harasses another person in any case where the first-mentioned person intends that harassment to cause that other person to fear for that other person’s safety; or the safety of any person with whom that other person is in a family relationship.

Andrew Williams will be a good fit for NZ First. He is like Winston, in that he can not tolerate criticism.

Andrew Williams never learns. By attacking Whale Oil, he gets their feud into the pages of the Herald. Cameron gets to have reported his lines:

“I am not stalking the Mad Mayor, the Whale spies informed me of the antics of the Mad Mayor.”

I can’t wait for Williams to stand for NZ First.

An interesting speculation has reached me. Andrew Williams will of course not be elected Auckland Mayor. I doubt he’d even make 5%.  He is unlikely to even make Council – his sole chance is that 15 people are standing in his ward so one may be able to get elected off a very small percentage.

So what will he do if he is not on Council? Well he is consumed with a loathing for Rodney Hide, as is Winston Peters. So the whisper I hear is Andrew Williams will be a NZ First candidate in a top six list spot.

For those who doubt it, remember Tim Shadbolt was once a NZ First prospective candidate.

A possible caucus of Winston, Laws and Andrew Williams. It will be like Alice in Wonderland!

The Herald reports:

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams is standing for the Super City mayoralty, promising to inject his own colourful style of politics into the contest.

Mr Williams has started as he means to go on, firing potshots at the two heavyweight contenders Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Manukau Mayor Len Brown, and comparing himself to unconventional mayors, such as London’s Boris Johnson and Invercargill’s Tim Shadbolt.

Comparing himself to Boris Johnson – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

The Herald on Sunday story on North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams comparing himself to Jesus (and General Custer) has just made the Drudge Report.

The embarrassment has just gone global?

How big is the Drudge Report?

The largest US newspaper, USA Today, has a circulation of 1.9 million copies a day. The New York Times has a circulation of around 900,000 a day.

The Drudge Report received 23.3 million visits in the last 24 hours.

So millions of people will now have read about Williams comparing himself to Jesus and posting photoshopped photos of the Local Government Minister as Hitler on Facebook.

Thank God there are only six months to go.

The HoS reports:

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams is facing fresh criticism after comparing himself to Jesus on the cross.

In an email about reports he urinated on a tree after drinking at a Takapuna restaurant, he wrote to councillors: “Two people were crucified at Easter – and one of them is me.”

And the SST:

“I now know how General Custer felt surrounded by a thousand Indians wanting his blood. But on this occasion me thinks that right will win through and the `dark forces’ will eventually be put down.”

Jesus and General Custer? So that is General Jesus Williams?

Whale Oil has obliged by providing a photo of General Williams.

The Herald weighs up large trucks on roads:

According to the Ministry of Transport, trucks carrying heavier loads on our roads “will help to improve road safety, while reducing road congestion, operating costs and vehicle emissions”.

The statement is a highly contrary one to critics of the move, who foresee only an increased threat to safety. They are apt to point out that trucks are involved in 16 per cent of all road fatalities despite comprising only 4 per cent of the vehicle fleet.

The MOT rationale is I presume that it is safer to have a fewer number of heavier trucks on the road, than a larger number of lighter trucks.

Allowing trucks to carry loads of up to 53 tonnes – an increase from the present limit of 44 tonnes – from next month can only, they say, make matters worse.

Basic physics supports their view. Heavier trucks will take longer to stop, thereby creating heightened danger for any motorist caught in their path.

That individual truck may be more dangerous, but it does not mean the trucking fleet as a whole will be more dangerous.

But physics are not uppermost in the ministry’s mind when it talks of safety. It hangs its hat on the productivity equation – that a given amount of freight will be carried on fewer trucks.

Safer roads, it says, will be the product of an estimated 20 per cent decrease in the number of trips by trucks, as will be an increase of productivity of between 10 and 20 per cent.

I’d rather have fewer trucks on the road, even if they are heavier.

The Dom Post looks at Auckland Mayors today:

Aucklanders sometimes wonder why the rest of the country rolls its eyes when contemplating shenanigans in the City of Sails.

Sunday newspaper reports about the behaviour of North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams illustrate why. He has been accused of public drunkenness, urinating in a public place and driving the mayoral car after he had been drinking one night. …

The mayor has built for himself a reputation of volatility and irascibility, particularly when his will is crossed. Still, he won’t be North Shore mayor after October.

I suspect many North Shore residents are counting down the days.

Mr Williams says he will run for the super-city but won’t say if he’ll contest the mayoralty – probably the second-most-important political position in the country. If he does, he is unlikely to win. New Zealand might love its iconoclasts, but this job is too important to entrust to someone of his ilk.

Little risk there I would say.

The Press calls for Easter trading reform:

If there is one area of the law which is crying out for a thorough re-examination it is the Easter shop trading restrictions.

Once again over the past long weekend Labour Department inspectors were out and about, attempting to enforce a hotchpotch trading regime which is riddled with inconsistencies. …

Then there is the view that with liberal retailing hours at other times of the year it is not too much to reserve Good Friday and Easter Sunday as, generally, shopping-free days, along with Christmas Day and Anzac Day before 1pm.

Yet loosening the restrictions on Easter Sunday or even Good Friday would not compel New Zealanders to head to the cash register. Those who choose, instead, to spend time with family could still do so.

Provided there are safeguards to ensure that reluctant employees could not be coerced into working, then it is high time that the traditional justifications for trading restrictions be scrutinised to determine whether they remain relevant.

Absoultely. And once the change had been made, everyone will wonder why we didn’t do it years ago – just like weekend shopping.

The ODT focuses on the military:

While the air force’s lack of strike-force capability remains a joke, significant expense and effort has gone towards better equipping the navy and army – only for poor judgements and decision-making to undermine much of the progress. …

HMNZS Canterbury, the multi-role ship in this little fleet, had so many defects that manufacturer BAE Systems paid the Government $84.6 million to repair them.

A scathing independent review last year said the ship’s poor performance in high seas would now just have to be accepted. …

How disappointing that one of the army’s latest purchases did its best to outdo the worst of the navy’s larks.

The army spent $590,000 on bullets that were unfit for use in the army’s guns, and had to resell the ammunition for $350,000.

Not to be outdone in magnitude of waste, the army’s light operational vehicles were 63 months late, cost $37 million more than planned and had a string of difficulties.

Now the Government is looking at selling 35 of the 105 because it believes too many were bought.

It was obvious from the beginning we have too many LAVs.

My personal view is that without a strike capability, there is no reason to maintain the RNZAF as a separate service, and our remaining planes and choppers should be integrated into the Army and Navy.

The SST editorial is one I agree with:

Some say the revelation of the mayor’s exploits is part of an Act Party plot against him. Certainly Act’s leader, Rodney Hide, doesn’t like Williams and wants him to go. Some of the mayor’s local opponents are also Act people. But Act didn’t force the mayor to spend a lengthy period in two bars in one day and then to urinate in public. Nor did Act tip off this newspaper about what the mayor was doing, despite vague accusations to that effect. Our reporter happened to notice Williams in a bar. There was no stalking, despite what the mayor’s wife, Jane Williams, has claimed. The reporter observed the politician. He saw him urinate in a public place and then drive the mayoral car home. He put the facts to the man himself. In other words, he did his job. The newspaper duly published the story, and the arguments began.

And a point often overlooked, is this was not a case of being caught short. This was a deliberate decision to take a piss outside the Council building, rather than go inside.

The Sunday Star-Times did not join Rodney Hide in calling for Williams to resign and it is not doing so now.

And neither have I, for what it is worth. Pissing in public is not a sackable offence.Hell, one former Minister even got away with pissing on a waiter in a hotel corridor.

They will also remember that this is not the first time that Williams has behaved in a peculiar fashion. The prime minister says Williams sent him obnoxious texts in the middle of the night. Williams is of course free to disagree with the PM. He is free to text him. But doing so in the small hours is dopey, unpleasant and even a mild form of harassment.

And doing so to the PM is especially stupid. Most people can turn their phones off at night. The PM is one of the few people who does have to be contactable at all hours. Having is cellphone number is a privilege that should not be abused.

The mayor’s supporters will say all this is just colourful and eccentric and nothing to really worry about. And it’s true that there have been plenty of eccentric mayors in New Zealand, although not so many from the rather staid and respectable North Shore.

Williams reminds me of Tim Shadbolt, but with a key difference being Tim can laugh at himself.

A readers’ poll on the Stuff website last week showed an overwhelming majority thought he should go. Williams, who is becoming adept at managing the crises he inflicts upon himself, called a special press conference last week to announce that he would stand for some unspecified post in the elections this year. So – Andrew Williams for the Auckland super city council? Heaven forbid.

I think it will be hilarious if Williams stands, as that will probably encourage Whale Oil to stand in the same ward as him. The meet the candidate meetings should become pay per view events!

NewstalkZB at 8 am reported Len Brown saying supportive things about Andrew William’s bid to be on the new Auckland Council. The item said:

Len Brown is showing his support for Andrew Williams intention to stand for election onto the new Council.  …

Manukau City Mayor Len Brown says he has worked well with Mr Williams in the past through the Mayoral Forum, and knows he has his community’s concerns at heart.

They also reported John Banks refused to comment – a much wiser strategy.

So far then, Len Brown has endorsed or said supportive things about both Sue Bradford and Andrew Williams being on Council.Is there anyone he won’t endorse?

I mean this is just after Williams puts up on his Facebook page a photo of Rodney Hide as Hitler (H/T: Whale).

Yes this image really is on the Mayor of North Shore City’s Facebook page – placed there by him.

Do I really need to even mention how offensive this is to actual survivors of the Holocaust. You might expect this behaviour from an anonymous troll on the Internet, but not from the Mayor of a major city.

And this is who Len Brown is supporting for Council – because he didn’t want to risk having Williams attack him, if he refused to say nice things about him.

This is one of the criticisms I hear about Brown. From all accounts he is a very nice guy, and quite personable. Someone you would find hard to dislike. Many people I know, from both National and Labour, say Len is a really nice guy.

But the criticism is whether he is tough enough to handle the job of being the inaugural Mayor of the Auckland Super City. You have to be able to sometimes call a spade a spade.

The job will involved both standing for 1.3 million Aucklanders to the national Government, but also being able to run a Council focused on regional issues and not be captured by the parochialism of the past.

And this is why Andrew Williams is unsuitable, in my opinion, for the Auckland Council. Even if you put aside his abusive and ranting style, he is also unsuitable because he seems only concerned with his local area – not Auckland as a whole. Of course you want ward Councillors to represent their communities, but you most of all want them focused on decisions that are good for Auckland as a whole.

It is almost impossible to see how anyone can think Williams would be a constructive member of the Auckland Council, and it does call into question Len Brown’s judgement, that he is effectively endorsing Andrew Williams.

The sacking of ECan is covered by The Press and the ODT. First The Press:

After years of simmering regional resentment of Environment Canterbury (ECan), the axe finally fell on its 14 councillors yesterday.

Despite a last ditch attempt by a majority of them to salvage their jobs through a face-saving compromise, they will be replaced by commissioners headed by public service trouble-shooter Dame Margaret Bazley.

Considering the drastic nature of this intervention, the Government acted relatively quickly following the damning report of the working party headed by former National deputy prime minister Wyatt Creech.

This speed was commendable, as it provides some certainty over ECan’s future. In turn, Environment Minister Nick Smith, often considered slightly erratic, deserves plaudits for the manner in which he consulted regional interests.

Ultimately the Government had little choice but to act decisively.

It speaks volumes that even the local newspaper is supporting the sacking. It is a pity Labour ad Greens are politicising it, when in the past more responsible Oppositions have supported similar actions, when a Council becomes dysfunctional.

And the ODT:

Comparisons between the actions of Fiji’s Frank Bainimarama “to solve Fiji’s” intractable problems and that of the present New Zealand Government to deal with the “institutional failure” of the Canterbury Regional Council (ECan) are inevitable. …

All the Canterbury district mayors, themselves democratically elected, had had enough of “dysfunctional” Ecan.

The regional council has had major problems since the mid-1990s at least, and it has failed time and time again to produce required water plans. Dissatisfaction is deep and widespread, and the Government’s review panel into ECan was unprecedented in its criticism.

Because matters were irrevocably and irreversibly broken down, temporary patch-ups would not work. …

Given the emphatic nature of the respected review team’s report, the Government would appear to have had little choice but to enact a selection of its central recommendations. …

Umm, no such comparisons are not inevitable, and I’ve not heard anyone but the ODT make them. In case they overlooked an essential aspect, one was a coup carried out at gunpoint, and the other is a democratically elected Government passing a law to put in place some Commissioners for one out of 14 Regional Councils, at the request of the democratically elected local territorial authorities who had lost confidence in it.

The NZ Herald sniffs around Andrew Williams:

There would be no point in Andrew Williams relinquishing the North Shore mayoralty over allegations that he urinated in public and drove home after drinking at a Takapuna restaurant.

With the introduction of the Super City imminent, a resignation would be a pointless distraction.

Nonetheless, the episode that prompted calls for him to step down, with several previous incidents, cast a considerable shadow over his plan, announced yesterday, to stand for an unspecified position on the Auckland Council.

Indeed, it suggests that one of the benefits of the Super City will be the demise of local-body mayors of his ilk.

Absolutely.

Mr Williams has sought to explain away such occurrences with talk, variously, of being on painkillers, of suffering from dehydration and of exhaustion from an overseas trip. This is unpersuasive.

A polite way of putting it.

And the Dominion Post reviews the coroner’s report into the OPC tragedy:

However, the tragedy is not a reason to deny other pupils adventure. As Mr Devonport says in his findings, taking risks and experiencing the outdoors is a part of growing up. That is particularly so in New Zealand with its mountains, rivers, forests and wide-open spaces. Children, teenagers and, for that matter, adults should be able to test themselves, whether it be by climbing trees, riding skateboards, scaling mountains or scrambling up stream beds wearing wetsuits, helmets and life vests. Life should not be lived in a glass bubble.

But providers of outdoor experiences have a duty to ensure all reasonable precautions are taken. The Outdoor Pursuits Centre failed abysmally to do that. Its staff did not pay enough attention to heavy rainfall in the gorge’s catchment area. …

The Mangatepopo Stream tragedy was a preventable tragedy. The lesson that should be taken from it is not that pupils should be denied adventure, but that those organising the adventure should take every possible step to reduce the danger to acceptable levels.

This little screenshot has the red line showing the path you would take to go from GPK to the Council offices, as Mayor Williams did on Thursday. It is not a long distance – around 500 metres.

Now we already know that the Mayor could have used the toilets at GPK. We also know he could have accessed the Council building, and used their toilets, rather than urinate outside.

But what many may not know, is that he would have actually walked past a set of public toilets – where the thick green arrow is. According to locals, there is a tourist i-site at this location, with a public toilet.

So just 200 metres after passing perfectly good public toilets, the Mayor decides he needs to urinate outside his own Council building. This just makes it worse.

I note with amusement that the North Shore City Council website has a front page poll on whether there are enough liquor bans in public areas. Maybe they need a liquor ban within 500 metres of the Council offices!

Whale Oil has long suggested (OK, this is Whale – he stated) that some of the more bizarre texts and e-mails from North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams occur while he is under the influence. This has always been denied. Today’s story in the SST by Jonathan Marshall, kills the credibility of those denials:

By chance, the Star-Times observed Williams drinking barside at Takapuna’s GPK bar and restaurant around 10pm on Thursday. He talked to a couple at the popular eatery and could be heard referring to himself in the third person. He said he was North Shore’s mayor and enjoyed his role.

And has been having an extended sulk that mean old Rodney and the Government have taken his job away.

Inquiries with two bar staff revealed Williams had been drinking red wine at the establishment since 4pm. Six hours later Williams left GPK alone and headed down Hurstmere Rd towards the offices of the North Shore City Council, where he has been mayor since 2007.

On his way he stopped, pulled down his trousers and urinated on a tree outside the council offices.

Having the Mayor down trou and take a piss outside the Council offices just makes your city a laughing stock.

And you have to wonder how pissed one has to be to do such a thing, considering he could have gone inside to use their toilets.

Williams then headed for the council underground carpark, collected his mayoral vehicle and drove home to Campbells Bay, a 6km trip.

Williams appears to have got home without incident.

This is potentially the most serious aspect. Now it is possible to drink for six hours and be under the legal limit. However the urinating outside the Council offices strongly suggests a considerable degree of drunkenness.

Shortly after Williams arrived home he sent an email to members of his council’s executive team in which he commented on a scheduled visit the following day by Hide and acting Housing Minister Maurice Williamson.

“These two individuals deserve any and all appropriate comments in relation to the rape and pillage of the North Shore by this Auckland takeover. I have only utter contempt for both of them,” Williams’ email, sent at 11.38pm, says.

I understand the North Shore Council staff were in fact totally professional, and very embarrased by the e-mail their drunken Mayor had sent out to them all.

But eight hours later, when Williams appeared on TV1′s Breakfast, co-host Paul Henry asked the mayor if he respected Williamson.

“Maurice is a good guy, I like Maurice,” Williams replied.

So either he is lying, or he was so drunk when he wrote the e-mail, he does not remember it. Unless he often says “I have only utter contempt” about people he says he likes and is a good guy.

Yesterday, outside his home, Williams told the Star-Times he had not been drinking on Thursday night but a few minutes later said he might have been, he just couldn’t “recall”.

He said he didn’t know if he had been drinking at GPK, and when challenged he responded: “Oh really? That’s interesting.”

So he denied he had been drinking initially and then said he can’t recall. To be fair to him, it is possible he can’t recall.

Asked if he had been working on Thursday evening, Williams replied: “I can’t recall. I might have been. I go to meetings every day, every night.”

Meetings? Like these:

Further inquiries that evening at GPK revealed the mayor was a “very frequent visitor”, “possibly one of our most regulars”, said one waitress.

That’s a lot of meetings.

Questioned about why he urinated on his way to collect his mayoral vehicle, Williams said: “I’m not going to talk about it.”

Maybe he genuinely can’t remember it also? That happens when you have drunk to excess.

When news broke last year of Williams’ early morning texts to Key – which the country’s leader branded “aggressive” and “obnoxious” – the mayor blamed painkillers.

He denied suggestions the texts were sent because he was drunk, saying he had not been intoxicated since his 21st birthday.

So he decided to take a piss outside the Council offices stone cold sober?

Maybe he was also on painkillers on Thursday!

In August 2008 Williams collapsed at a Devonport Naval Base function and lashed out at attending ambulance officers. He was hospitalised. Williams later insisted he had “no recollection” of it and was just “exhausted” from an overseas trip.

There does seem to be a real pattern here.

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams writes in the Herald:

A former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, was asked for his views on the re-election chances of the incumbent Republican President. He smiled and said: “Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me.”

That summed up what so many people were thinking over a myriad issues affecting the political future of the President. Cuomo delivered a powerful call to action to the millions disaffected with the Administration’s policies and performance.

Oh dear, Andrew wants this to be a story about how upset he is that his job has been abolished. But he should think about his political history better.

The Republican President Cuomo was commenting on was almost certainly Ronald Reagan in 1984. Reagan went on to win the election in the biggest landslide for many decades. In fact he was the second President since George Washington to win all but one state or better (Nixon did the same in 1972).

Oh this is hilarious. The Aucklander gives out it awards for 2010. The categories are:

1. Most overinflated view of a local body role.
2. Most creative charity contribution.
3. Most persistent request to be left alone.
4. Most petulant outburst.
5. Most relentless pursuit of the facts.
6. Most frightful drug reaction.
7. Most ingratiating brush with real celebrity.
8. Most insincere apology.
9. Most welcomed media silence.
10. Most unsuccessful media silence.

The winner of all ten awards is North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams. It must be so embarrassing if you live on the North Shore to have to admit Williams is your Mayor. I wonder if house prices have declined on the Shore since he was elected?