Brown: Entire board must go
New mayor widens attack after chair defies call to quit
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has widened his attack on the council’s property development arm, saying ultimately the chair and six directors are going to step down.
He was responding to the refusal by the chairman of Eke Panuku Development, Paul Majurey, not to heed his call on Monday to quit.
Majurey reiterated yesterday that he was happy to meet with Brown and discuss the performance of the council-controlled organisation (CCO), but this did not impress the mayor who wants not just Majurey to go, but the entire board — including David Kennedy, John Coop, Susan Huria, Kenina Court, Jennifer Kerr and Steve Evans.
When it became known at Panuku that Brown wanted all the board members gone, the CCO hit back with a statement saying the “board composition is the preserve of our shareholder, Auckland Council”.
Brown said he planned to discuss his calls for the CCO chairs and directors to step down with councillors, but is adamant he has a public mandate to remove them.
“I campaigned and got 60,000 votes more than the next one on the basis we are going to change all the CCOs. That’s who I consulted with,” Brown told the Herald.
On the campaign trail, Brown promised to take back control of the CCOs and cut $100 million of ratepayer funding for Eke Panuku and the council’s economic development and events arm,
Tā taki Auckland Unlimited, saying if they can survive on their own, “well and good”. If not, they will be closed down.
Already, Auckland Transport chair Adrienne Young-Cooper has stepped down after she got word that Brown wanted the board to resign only hours after he won the mayoralty against Labour-backed Efeso Collins on Saturday.
Brown said Young-Cooper had demonstrated “integrity and leadership” by stepping down.
Four days into the job, Brown is wasting no time to deliver change, but remains cagey on the specific hours he’ll commit to the job and says “it’s nobody’s business”.
Brown, 76, yesterday said he will not necessarily work at weekends and is not being paid a huge salary.
When the Herald put it to him most people would see his salary of $296,000 as large, the businessman said: “It’s not to me.”
During the election campaign, Brown said that as mayor he planned to pass a resolution to cut the salary pool of staff earning more than $300,000 by 30 per cent, middle management by 20 per cent and lower management by 10 per cent. “Bob Harvey [former Waitā kere City mayor] used to say, ‘you are the mayor 24/7, even when you are lying in bed you are still the bloody mayor’. It’s a job you do to meet the demands of the job. That’s it. I will do what is required,” Brown said.
According to a former staffer, Brown’s predecessor, Phil Goff, is a workaholic who put in 60 to 65 hours a week and attended events most Saturdays and Sundays.
Meanwhile,
Majurey said his position on his future is that he’s happy to meet with Brown and “discuss the performance of the Eke Panuku team who do a great job for Tā maki Makaurau”.
“As all of us on CCOs serve at the pleasure of the council, I have no issue if Auckland Council wishes to see changes on the board,” he told the Herald earlier.
Brown said he had not considered meeting Majurey because he is currently holding one-on-one meetings with all of the 20 councillors to get to know them, discuss their priorities and how they can contribute to the change Auckland voters have demanded.
Brown earlier said Eke Panuku receives millions of dollars from ratepayers and “returns very little”. He said it is a development company and while every other development company is making money, Panuku needs propping up with ratepayer money.
In an interview with the Herald, Brown was unsure about the social benefits Eke Panuku provides to ratepayers through urban regeneration projects with commercial and community outcomes.
Asked if Eke Panuku does deliver social outcomes to communities, Brown said he would comment “after getting more briefings”.