The Herald reports:
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says he is maintaining confidentiality by not giving councillors full and open access to a $1 million pre-feasibility report on a potential $1.5 billion downtown stadium.
Following growing pressure from councillors and a former aide to drop strict conditions for accessing the report, Goff said he was concerned to maintain obligations to third parties- believed to be landowners of five potentials sites in the city.
Councillor Penny Hulse told the Herald today that councillors should be treated on an equal footing with the mayor when it comes to the report and respecting its confidential contents.
Three other councillors – John Watson, Cathy Casey and Efeso Collins – have lodged complaints with the Ombudsman over the mayor’s actions.
As they should. Bad enough Goff commissioned this report and kept it secret for so long, but to deny elected representatives a copy is patronising.
A former political adviser to the mayor when he was in Parliament, James Bews-Hair, has criticised Goff’s behaviour over the report and “his peculiar obsession with a waterfront stadium monument to his leadership”.
In the monthly news sheet “Town Hall”, Bews-Hair said the decision of Goff to only allow councillors to see an unredacted version of the PwC report under the supervision of his staff “is an affront to the character and honesty of councillors, downright insulting”.
The matter, Bews-Hair said, had become “messy, unnecessary and completely avoidable”.
When your former staff call you out, that is significant.
Watson told the Herald that Goff was assuming the role of elected representative and chief executive in limiting councillors easily accessing something of interest to the public.
“The mayor … is just an elected representative.
“It is getting in the realm of ridiculous. It is become like a KGB spy flick.
“In the scheme of correct protocol, it should be dealt under the oversight of the chief executive not the mayor.”
Despite an unredacted version of the report being offered to councillors, none were yet to read it because of the conditions being demanded, he said.
Councillors had outlined their concerns to Goff on numerous occasions but that had fallen on “deaf ears”, he said.
“He has been caught out. He has known about this report for nearly a year, we only heard about it because the media put in a LGOIMA [Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request].
“This report has cost $1 million and has been out for nearly a year. It’s to do with a $1.5 billion stadium. It is very much in the interest of the public.
And Goff campaigned on transparency.
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