Lies on Auckland

Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 11:24 am

The Herald reports claims and lies re Auckland:

Labour MP Phil Twyford and the Greens’ Sue Kedgley yesterday claimed the agency designing the Super City was going to place control of most of Auckland’s assets into eight companies.

Mr Twyford said up to eight council-controlled organisations (CCOs) with their own boards and chief executives would run the services of transport, water, stadiums, land development and economic development.

“They are even planning to corporatise libraries and community houses. The mayor and council will be left like beached whales,” he said.

So is this true?

Mr Ford said there was no way that libraries and community services, “which lie at the heart of local government”, would be run by anything but the council.

Seems not. Any other lies?

He also disputed a claim by Mr Twyford that the CCOs would be overseen by a separate council-owned holding company with its own chief executive and board.

“CCOs will be controlled under the Auckland Council and it will be the council that is responsible for the governance and monitoring of performance,” Mr Ford said.

Yep.

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Aucklanders, meet your new overlords

Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 pm

Rodney Hide has named the five members of the Auckland Transition Agency. They are:

  1. Mark Ford, Executive Chair. CEO of Watercare Services Ltd since 1994 and Chairman of ARTA since 2007.  Previous roles have included CEO of Auckland Regional Services Trust and CEO of NZ Forestry Corporation.
  2. Miriam Dean, Extensive legal experience, appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2004.  An experienced mediator and arbitrator with strong governance experience.
  3. John Waller, Chartered accountant with change management expertise.  Chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and adviser on many successful restructurings.
  4. John Law, Extensive Auckland region local government experience, including seven years as Mayor of Rodney District Council (2001-07).
  5. Wayne Walden, Experienced company director and manager, with extensive governance experience. Former Chair of Maori Television (2003-08).  Affiliated to Ngati Kahu and Tai Tokerau.

They have a huge job ahead of them, merging eight Councils together, 6,000 staff and $28 billion of assets.

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