John Tamihere's pledge to sack Auckland Transport's board should be taken seriously

Monday, 12 August 2019

John Tamihere has pledged to sack the board of Auckland Transport.

OPINION: The big question about mayoral hopeful John Tamihere's pledge to sack the entire board of council agency Auckland Transport is: Can he do it?

Tamihere has labelled the directors 'ideological bullies' and has characterised much of the council's transport policy as a 'war on cars'.

Auckland Transport was created under legislation that amalgamated the region's eight local bodies into the Auckland Council, and set up what are now five council companies to carry out much of its day-to-day work.

It has up to nine directors, one of whom is nominated by the Government's transport agency NZTA and two of whom can be councillors.

John Tamihere and prospective deputy Christine Fletcher would sack Aucklnd Transport's entire board if elected.

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If elected, how could Tamihere deliver a promise about an agency so bound up in legislation?

Surprisingly, Tamihere could need as few as two sympathetic councillors to sweep out the board of directors.

Their appointment by Auckland Council has been delegated completely to the catchily named Appointments, Performance Review and Value for Money Committee, created and chaired by Mayor Phil Goff.

The committee has eight politicians on it.

It can vote with a quorum as low as four members, meaning a mayor and two allies can be enough to make any decision, or with a full turnout, five votes.

While the full council can over-rule any committee decision by calling it in for review, that has not happened in nine years and, given that the mayor chairs both, would seem unlikely.

What of the directors?

Lester Levy heads the AT board which John Tamihere wants to sack, but his term ends in October.

All nine serve at the whim of the council. Their terms can be ended swiftly and without compensation, though so far none have.

They include big names such as former Labour finance minister Sir Michael Cullen and experienced public sector director Dame Paula Rebstock.

Auckland Transport is required to have a board, meaning replacements would need to be found far quicker than the painstaking process used in normal times.

The council committee uses a selection panel as well as external consultants to find, cull and recommend appointees who meet the skills specified by the committee.

The committee in February set the criteria for the next chairperson – to succeed Lester Levy – and six months later has just signed off the short-list.

AT does not seem to be losing sleep over Tamihere's policy, and a spokesperson was unsure how long it could run without a board, before business decisions were disrupted.

A lot of decision making is delegated from the board to the chief executive, but whether that applied if there was no board was also unclear.

Auckland Transport is not perfect. At times, it trips up over small but high-profile issues like failing to front at a public meeting in St Heliers over proposed safety improvements.

On the flipside, it has managed the long-running and solid growth in public transport use and the ongoing roll out of some of the country's biggest public transport projects.

It operates to strategic goals set each year by councillors and spends about $750 million of ratepayers' money in its $1.8 billion operation.

While a lot said on election campaigns is little more than crowd-pleasing tub-thumping, Tamihere's pledge to sack AT's board could be carried out and the merits or otherwise should be taken seriously by voters.