One year on from councillors' controversial letter to Auckland mayor Phil Goff

Thursday, 13 June 2019

Auckland mayor Phil Goff says he's not a politician that plays the person rather than the ball.

A year ago, several councillors wrote an open letter complaining about mayor Phil Goff's transparency with stadium documents, and other allegations including claims he practiced a 'non-inclusive' leadership style.

Today five of the nine councillors who signed the letter claim little has changed.

Goff, who was last year vindicated by an official Ombudsman's report into some of the allegations made, responded by saying he worked well with almost all of Auckland's 20 councillors, despite them holding different views.

He said: 'I've never worked with a group of 20 people from a whole lot of different backgrounds where everybody is happy with everything but when I look at my relationships with councillors, it's been good.'

Councillors were unhappy with how a $1 million document about the waterfront stadium had been handled.

* Downtown stadium report now free for councillors to view - with conditions

* Auckland mayor Phil Goff puts stadium talks on hold - for the next decade at least

Councillor Christine Fletcher, who is supporting John Tamihere's mayoralty run with herself as deputy, says issues are still unresolved.

* Auckland councillors 'appalled' by mayor's handling of stadium report**

The five councillors, who frequently hold opposing views to the mayor, pointed to the sale of Auckland Council's former headquarters, the proposal to sell marina land and the continued handling of the stadium strategy as recent examples of how they claim the council continues to lack openness.

Looking back on the letter in election year, Stuff spoke to six of the nine councillors and the mayor about the current environment and their thoughts about last year's controversial letter.

The letter was signed by councillors Cathy Casey, Christine Fletcher, Daniel Newman, Efeso Collins, Greg Sayers, John Watson, Mike Lee, Sharon Stewart and Wayne Walker.

Councillor Wayne Walker says he has seen cabinet style politics around the Auckland Council table.

Councillors Sharon Stewart, John Watson, Christine Fletcher (who is running for deputy mayor with mayoral candidate John Tamihere in opposition to Goff), Mike Lee and Wayne Walker said they had seen little change to how Auckland Council operated.

Stewart said she was not happy with the way Auckland Council has been run and she was also unhappy with how council agencies, officially known as council-controlled organisations (CCOs), made 'major decisions' which councillors found out after being kept in the dark.

She cited the recent sale of the old council building as one where councillors had not been 'kept in the loop' and 'some of the accuracy of information supplied to councillors leaves a lot to be desired'.

Lee expressed a similar sentiment, stating the current council was the unhappiest one he had ever been on.

Fletcher said issues were unresolved and behaviour had not improved.

Walker said he continued to see a lack of transparency and found it difficult to access information, especially from some of the CCOs.

He referred to the stadium strategy and the proposal for Western Springs as two examples where he struggled to get information.

Councillor John Watson says there is a 'fundamental distrust' of significant parts of the organisation that he and others feel.

'I see cabinet style politics around the Auckland Council table and that's not appropriate and it's not in the best interests of Auckland,' Walker said.

Watson said the waterfront stadium document had never been discussed or brought before a meeting of council.

Councillor Efeso Collins says there has been more willingness from the mayor's office to engage with councillors.

'For a report that cost so much money and caused so much trouble, it's gone nowhere,' Watson said.

However Goff reiterated the reason the documents had not been shared with councillors was down to commercial sensitivity.

Council was still split and at times, there could be 'a rather unpleasant atmosphere', Watson said.

Mayor Phil Goff says councillors acted according to their own views and values, and he did not expect them to be clones of him.

'It's still a split council and I think if people were honest, they would say it can be a rather unpleasant atmosphere,' Watson said.

'The kind of superficial pleasantries that might exist at meetings really mask a much deeper malaise in this council I think.

'That goes way beyond just one person. I think there's a fundamental distrust of significant parts of the organisation that I and others continue to feel.'

Collins said there has been a willingness from chairpeople and the mayor's office to engage better with councillors.

However there was room to do better and his door was open for the mayor to visit too, he said.

The initial challenge for some councillors was feeling as though they were not part of earlier discussions when plans were made, he said.

'You and I may disagree, that's cool, that's kind of what democracy is about, but leaving people out of the picture for such a long period of time is detrimental to good democratic practice and good working relationships.'

Collins planned to write a letter to Goff about the level of support councillors received from the public service.

Looking back on the letter, Goff said: 'I think you look on every experience as a learning experience'.

He believed a workshop with councillors after the letter was released had been helpful, he said.

'I work well with almost all councillors but do we have different views? Of course we do. Do we collaborate together then generally vote together on most issues? The answer is yes, we do.'

Goff referred to the 'overwhelming support' he received on his budget and 10-year budget as examples.

'I'm not a politician that plays the person rather than the ball, I'll have a robust debate with anybody on a policy matter but I don't personalise it to people.'

He immediately took up the allegations of bullying and he did not think either side wanted to carry it forward, Goff said.

'I don't tolerate bullying by anybody either within my own team or in any other sector of groupings I deal with.'

When it came to waterfront stadium document, Goff said it was not about having distrust in councillors but the material had to remain confidential.

'Sometimes I've got to say and our staff, and our chief executive have got to say 'look, this material is incredibly confidential and we aren't just running it around because some confidential material is immediately leaked and that's not good - it happens all over politics and has always happened.

'It's simply just to emphasise to people and I emphasise to councillors - and I did it pretty strongly - that this material had to remain confidential. '

Goff had no hard feelings towards the councillors who took the matter up with the Ombudsman, he said.

THE LETTER

The letter, sent to the mayor last year said: 'in our view the result is a rather distrustful political working environment within Council'.

'Quite simply the question of trust and transparency within the Auckland Council is getting worse not better as far as we're concerned.'

A workshop with councillors and the mayor took place and the Ombudsman investigated the handling of the waterfront stadium document.