15 Dec 2017

Testy council meeting shows Goff's honeymoon over

11:14 am on 15 December 2017

Analysis - The honeymoon's over for Auckland's mayor Phil Goff who has had to retract a political initiative, and faced scathing criticism from councillors over his leadership style.

Phil Goff was among those to attend a meeting at the University of Auckland on 1 April 2016 after a series of violent attacks on international students.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

The harshest words came from some of his closest political allies, after what looked like a minor committee reshuffle blew up in his face.

But the biggest piece of humble pie was eaten by the mayor before the public outbursts at Thursday's Governing Body meeting.

Mr Goff had proposed setting up a Value for Money committee, chaired by himself, with six hand-picked members.

It would have effectively rounded-up some of the most influential financial tasks currently shared among other committees, and given Mr Goff a stronger hold on the operational side of the council.

One of the burning issues was that this committee was news to those councillors that Mr Goff had failed to reach by phone only the preceding day.

His proposal, along with a reshuffle of some committee roles was published in the online agenda, the night before the meeting.

A pushback by senior councillors to the idea of putting so much crucial direction-setting into a single committee led by the mayor, forced Mr Goff to defer the move without public explanation.

That didn't defuse a testy, sometimes heated hour-long discussion as councillors harshly criticised Mr Goff's political leadership around the council table.

A recurring complaint was Mr Goff's removal of third-term Albany ward councillor Wayne Walker as deputy chair of the regulatory committee, replaced by the deputy mayor Bill Cashmore.

Councillor Walker was left a phone message by Mr Goff, breaking the news and inviting him to call back.

"You do not do things like that - this is not the way we work at council," left-leaning councillor Cathy Casey told the mayor - a 33 year Parliamentary veteran in his first term in local government.

"You leave angry and hurt people around this table, and I am angry and hurt on councillor Walker's behalf that you couldn't front up to him and tell him why you didn't want him as deputy chair."

Cathy Casey at a Council meeting about the Unitary Plan. 10 August 2016.

Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

Councillor Walker chose his words carefully.

"Frankly, advising me pretty much after the event is not the way I do things," he told Mr Goff.

"You are the one who should be making things right, not me, and for me this is just another disturbing aspect of leadership."

Another left-leaning councillor, Manukau Ward's Efeso Collins, referred to the concept of Whakawhanaungatanga - or relationship building.

"There's got to be enough respect for us to say, 'when I'm going to communicate with you it'll be honest, and timely and peoples' mana will be upheld'," he said.

Mayor Phil Goff and councillor Efeso Collins at the Auckland Council swearing in ceremony.

Efeso Collins Photo: RNZ / Todd Niall

Others referred to a feeling that there was an A and a B team around the council table.

"Not all of us feel we are part of a team," long-serving councillor Christine Fletcher told the mayor.

"There must be a better way of doing things, and there must be a better way of improving the relationships between ourselves.

"You could show some leadership in trying to create an opportunity in the New Year," she said.

The testy exchange is the most public display yet that Mr Goff is no longer getting his own way.

His election pledge to hold general rates to average annual rise of 2.5 percent is history, after councillors lobbied him to propose higher rates to tackle a backlog of work to improve water quality and the environment.

Mr Goff also promised to find around $72 million a year in savings above and beyond the efficiency programmes already underway inside the council.

His attempt to set up a Value for Money Committee with him as chair has been seen as an efficiency drive that some think could focus too strongly on politically-attractive cost-cutting, and not enough on what's best for the city.

Some of the complaints echoed those directed at his predecessor Len Brown, at the end of his first term.

Councillors had become irritated that he personalised everything, with phrases like "my vision, my mandate" which some felt minimised their place around the council table.

Mr Goff similarly speaks regularly in the first-person about big council issues saying "I don't have the money," and "if I can raise extra-revenue".

The public roasting of the mayor by councillors was probably equalled only by the storm that blew up his predecessor Len Brown, after he admitted an extra-marital affair immediately after re-election in 2013.

The Christmas break will provide a welcome circuit-breaker, before the council begins to consult Aucklanders on a ten-year budget that may be an arm-wrestle between quality-of-life questions and fiscal policies.

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