Viv Beck avenged: Businesses attempt coup of Heart of the City board
Thursday, 18 June 2026
The Heart of the City executive committee is facing an attempted coup with a petition from more than a hundred business members calling for their jobs, citing “a loss of confidence”.
It follows the committee having stood down chief executive Viv Beck before being ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to reinstate her, pending the outcome of a review.
Amid the tensions between Beck and the committee, a group of businesses have called into question whether the executive members who removed her were eligible for their positions.
Heart of the City’s executive committee has been contacted for comment. It previously told The Post it believed its executive members were eligible, but acknowledged it had concerns about the accuracy of its membership register.
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Meanwhile, The Post has learned that on Wednesday a petition was served to Heart of the City calling for removal of the committee and an election for their replacements.
It claimed to have the support of at least 5% of the business improvement district’s (BID) membership - the required threshold to force a special general meeting under its constitution.
“It is genuinely disappointing that matters have reached this point. The undersigned members would have greatly preferred these issues to be resolved constructively,” it said.
Steve Bielby of the Auckland Notable Properties Trust said he had helped collect 126 signatures.
“It’s everyone from Louis Vuitton to the little sushi store,” he told The Post.
One of the petition’s signatories, masseuse David Clark, said he felt the committee had become “disconnected from businesses on the ground floor”.
“Viv [Beck] has got a really big heart and I think she put a lot of effort into getting around and talking to us about all the concerns,” he said. “She's very well-liked by the business community.”
Anti-social behaviour and car parking issues were Clark’s main concerns.
“It used to be the golden mile but Queen St smells a bit like a urinal basically, and a lot of the surrounding streets have got faeces and things like that.”
But Clark said he felt a proper functioning BID was important for the success of the inner city and he hoped an SGM would bring an end to its internal tensions.
“Someone listening and representing us is very important … People that I talk to who are running small businesses are really struggling out there.”
The petition claims that an SGM and election must be held by July 17, otherwise the businesses will be entitled under the constitution to hold one without the committee.
Failure to action the resolution would result in “an immediate injunctive application” it said.
Membership issues
According to the petition, businesses were concerned about the “constitutional legitimacy” of the current executive committee.
“That loss of confidence has not arisen lightly or suddenly. It follows an extended period of months during which serious and properly evidenced constitutional concerns have been raised,” it said.
The issue appears to turn on whether members of the executive committee, including its chair, were named in a membership register required to be kept under the constitution and the Incorporated Societies Act.
The Heart of the City executive committee told The Post that it had reviewed the register after the issue was raised and had “identified enough errors to be very concerned”.
“The Executive Committee has been working with its legal advisors to determine the appropriate process for updating the membership and intends to complete this work as soon as practicable. It is vital that this issue is rectified, for both accurate record-keeping and legal compliance reasons.”
The committee suggested it had been Beck’s role as secretary to maintain the register.
“Under HOTC’s constitution the obligation to establish and maintain the register is delegated to the secretary of the society - this is a formally appointed position,” it said.
It had been working to proactively review the register and organise an SGM, It said.