Make third Auckland council bill public says North Shore Mayor

NSCC: 2 November 2009

“The Government needs to immediately make public its third Auckland Council Bill so that council staff and concerned residents can see the complete picture of the proposed new Auckland Council organisation .” North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams said today.

“The ATA today released their draft organisational structure for the new Auckland Council, which in some circumstances offers council staff the possibility of transfer into any number of new council-controlled organisations or CCOs, but the companion document setting up these new CCOs, the third Auckland Council Bill, remains a secret,” Mayor Williams said.

“We are only seeing half of the picture so far, and the full picture will reveal just how much of Auckland will fall outside of the new Council and how much will be in the hands of arms length boards of “non-elected” directors controlling CCO’s. This has a huge bearing on what will be the final democratic make-up of the new city, and at this point I am of the feeling that democracy will take a back seat in all this.” says Mayor Williams.

“How many new CCOs there will be and what work they will undertake for the Auckland Council is a vital element of the equation, and has direct bearing on how both staff and the community respond to the proposed new Auckland Council structure.”

“The government has to drop the cloak of secrecy and let people see the complete picture of the new organisational arrangements for Auckland , especially when they will have such a direct impact on people’s livelihoods and families,” Mayor Williams said.

Mayor Williams acknowledges the work the ATA has clearly put into the discussion document and said that he hoped the ATA is able to keep both ‘its head and its heart’ in the right place when it comes to supporting staff through an undoubtedly difficult change process into the new organisational arrangements.