Auckland Mayor Phil Goff dumps councillors from Auckland Transport board

Tuesday, 25 October 2016

Mike Lee is angry at being dumped by Phil Goff.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has wasted no time in his clean up of his council and is being accused of attacking democracy and accountability by those upset at his moves.

On Tuesday Goff announced the council's two Auckland Transport (AT) board representatives, councillors Mike Lee and Christine Fletcher, would go. And he won't replace them.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff made himself chairman of the the Appointments and Performance Review committee.

Goff believes removing councillors from AT's nine member board would actually improve accountability - because having councillors on the board creates too many compromises and conflicts.

A spokeswoman for Goff said he could still reappoint councillors, or possibly unelected appointees, to AT's board if the change doesn't work.

Council Controlled Organisation Auckland Transport with its 1453 full-time employees brought in more than $1.3 billion in revenue 2016.

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Christine Fletcher was also dropped from the AT board.

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'Our level of independence is greatly exaggerated,' said Auckland Transport chairman Lester Levy.

Auckland local politics veteran Mike Lee, who along with Fletcher sat on his last AT board meeting on Tuesday, is baffled by Goff's decision and said Goff is 'second-guessing the wishes of Parliament'.

2010's Government-initiated Auckland local body amalgamation gave newly formed Auckland Council the ability to place councillors on AT's board, Lee said.

Goff told RNZ the 'feedback I have to date is that [having councillors on the board] has not been the strongest form of accountability.'

Goff's election manifesto promised 'clear expectations will be established for all CCOs' but gave no detail on how his council would assert those expectations.

Under Goff's council committee cull and shakeup last week, Goff made himself chairman of the the Appointments and Performance Review committee which oversees CCO appointments, while Fletcher will be his deputy.

But two other key council committees, Finance and Performance, and Planning would now both have 'operational oversight' of AT, Goff's spokeswoman said.

GOFF'S AT BOARD MOVE ASSESSED

The Public Transport Users Association called Goff's board decision a 'direct attack on democracy and accountability'.

But Transport Blog writer Matt Lowrie believes putting elected councillors on AT's board placed them in a conflicted position.

Corporate-style confidentiality practices binding all AT board members to secrecy, like the agency favouring light rail for Auckland, meant board councillors weren't able to communicate fully with council's publicly accountable Governing Body, he believes.

Aucklanders were lucky having strong public transport supporters Lee and Fletcher on AT's board but that could have changed if either stepped-down or were replaced by councillors hostile to growing public transport infrastructure, Lowrie said.

Getting councillors to better scrutinise and stop 'rubber-stamping' AT's highly-detailed Statement of Intent could be one way council can assert better oversight of the 1400-plus employee CCO, he said.

Fletcher said she's pushing for the six member performance committee to take a leading role vetting AT's statement.

Councillors have 'huge power' over the statement but concedes they haven't yet exercised it, she said.

Auckland Transport chairman Lester Levy said he had 'no comment' to make except removing the councillors was the Mayor's decision while claims about AT's level of independence where 'greatly exaggerated'.