Local government
Thanks and praise to the ‘fixit’ mayor from unlikely quarters as he passes his first major financial milestone with a budget approved for public feedback next year
Wayne Brown had a bad moment on Thursday – an hour or two – when he talked too much and scared the crap out of the stock market, but he had a good day.
Despite his ill-advised comments about Auckland Airport Brown went to market for a capital raise and should have taken heart from the comments of others around the Auckland Council decision-making table during a seven-hour budget discussion.
Not only did the mayor hurry, first economic plan for the city’s financesIt passed the next stage of public consultation by 20 votes to 1 against, but drew thanks and praise from several unlikely sources.
It had taken a lot of hard work, he said, to quickly raise the budget that aims to fill a $295 million hole in the council’s books during a cost-of-living crisis.
My goodness, he should have even worked weekends.
Acknowledging past media and public criticism of his workweek hours, Brown told council members his top advisers huddled with him over the weekend to finalize the numbers.
“I’ve had some pretty negative publicity about my seemingly short hours, but a wet Sunday afternoon there with them was valuable.”
Brown cited the weekend overtime in response to Councilman Christine Fletcher’s effusive praise. “You are the first to give us clarity,” she said. “You are in charge from the front and everyone is entitled to certainty. We are getting much more coordination around policy and financing.”
Fletcher had felt left out at times under previous mayor Phil Goff, so her comments were heavy with implications. But she also praised Brown’s mayoral office staff for “accommodating the sensitivities some of us felt” around new direction letters for city-controlled businesses. “I think we’re entering a new age of maturity.”
Brown’s big gathering wasn’t just bouquets. A range of councilors raised issues with his cuts or revenue-raising plans, but at this point only voted in favor of the package to allow it to be publicly commented on, and some councilors did because they had always taken that approach. So the 20 to 1 (Josephine Bartley of Maungakiekie Ward objected, saying the package unfairly targeted community groups) vote was not the endorsement it might have seemed.
But what stood out was how many councillors, from different political backgrounds, expressed their gratitude and praise to Brown for his willingness over the past few weeks to briefings and drafts and workshops to adapt his plan to take into account the views of others.
That is not necessarily the image Brown has created for himself in the past or during his election campaign. He often spoke of people being “told” what would happen (everyone from the central government to individual councilors and civil servants) and portrayed his future mayoralty as one of his agendas pushed through despite likely objections.
“Progressive” councilors, who would have supported Brown’s opponent Efeso Collins in the mayoral campaign, thanked and supported.
Shane Henderson, Waitakere’s Labor councilor, spoke of his excitement at the role Brown had given him as a liaison for Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, the council-owned economic development and events company.
“It’s an honor and a highlight of my career to work on it,” he said.
The collegiate Brown responded, “I’m glad I made a good choice.”
He almost pinched himself verbally. “Do I feel a little, some sample, joy among us?”
A City Vision councilor from Puketāpapa, Julie Fairey, also thanked Brown for his kind words after praising her for her work with new community advisory panels. She did not support the general budget because of a lack of information. However, she had not yet managed to put together a viable alternative, she said. “The mayor has already made some welcome improvements.”
From the chair, Brown regularly responded to budget criticism with “fair enough” and offered to look into the councillors’ problems.
Another Labor councillor, Lotu Fuli of Manukau, said his proposal “is very different from what we saw at the beginning, so I appreciate you listening and taking advice.”
She did reveal that at one point in their series of private meetings on the budget, Brown had asked councilors to raise their hands in favor of “a certain figure” of rate increase, but had not advanced that.
Richard Hills, another Collins and Goff supporter, asked for a list of budget measures, but noted that “the community and the media probably wanted blood on the floor and a lot of [disputed] vote” during the meeting.
“But today it’s about getting the community to speak.”
He was “extremely pleased” that Brown had listened to feedback about making cuts to council-run early childhood centers that are open to public feedback, rather than his original plan to put council employees under delegated authority. let it close.
Hills disputed Brown’s implication in his budget remarks that the mayor had inherited a basket finance business. Even the Reserve Bank could not have predicted such high inflation and interest rates six months ago when the budget for the current fiscal year was prepared. “We could not have known that price levels were going up.”
Another Manukau councillor, Alf Filipaina, also denounced Brown for showing disdain for his predecessor, Goff, when he opened the meeting, saying he had been left a mess by the outgoing mayor.
“I just want to take offense to that. It’s a minus for the governing body over the past three years.”
But even with the occasional backlash and some explicit policy critiques, the impression during all hours of debate that the new mayor had made an effort to accommodate and act collegially contradicted his “my way or the highway” campaign image .
Brown is an unusual chair, often joking or teasing councilors as he lets them speak, showing his impatience with the extended words, praising Sharon Stewart’s one-sentence speech and interjecting to others, and commenting on his own state of mind. As the meeting went on, he alternated between wary and despair.
“I really hope we live long enough to see the end of it,” he said.
“Thanks. Very entertaining,” he concluded one segment. “I think we’re heading towards the end of entertainment.”
“We must have argued to death about ourselves,” he pleaded, casting a vote and receiving support. “Bingo.”
A belated item on the council’s submission in response to the Local Government Review panel led Brown to recall an awkward meeting he had with the panelists after the draft report.
“My meeting with the review panel didn’t go too well for them. Of the 29 recommendations they made, I disagreed with 28.”
He then tried to close the meeting, only to be told by an advisor, “You’re not done yet.”
“Oh, you son of a bitch,” said the mayor, looking down at his notes for the last straggler item of the seventh hour.
“It just gets a lot of madness. Anyone who for whatever it is please say Aye.”
The vote is over and the first budget hurdle has been passed. Mayor Brown invites council members to come back to the mayor’s chambers.
“I finally managed to get some beer in the fridge, so you might as well empty it because it’s the end of the year.”
He was glad to be on the sidelines, earning the respect of his new set of fellow councilors for the time being. But then he thought back to the dreaded media and what his beer fridge words might look like. “That will undoubtedly result in several LGOIMAs [official information requests for the cost].”