Tory Whanau: Wellington Mayor talks project cuts, Crown Observer appointment live in studio with Nick Mills
Lindsay McKenzie has been appointed as Wellington City Council’s Crown observer. Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said McKenzie has significant governance and senior leadership experience. McKenzie’s term will last until July next year. Wellington City Council’s Crown observer will be on the job tomorrow after the Government revealed the man tasked with sorting out “the shambles”. Lindsay McKenzie, the former chief executive of Tasman District Council and Gisborne District Council, has agreed to take on the role. Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau told Newstalk ZB’s Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills there had been better collaboration at the council in the past couple of weeks. ”When the Minister was contemplating government intervention, I think that kind of gave everyone a bit of a fright. The last thing the council wanted was a commissioner”, she said. Whanau said she wasn’t surprised when the Government decided to appoint a Crown observer. ”I wouldn’t say relief, just kind of like acceptance that this was happening.” When asked whether she’d lost control of her council, Whanau said no. ”This robustness and perception of dysfunction has been building for years.” Whanau believed they could work together but said “unified” was probably no longer the right word to use. Asked what she would do differently, Whanau said anything she did differently would result in the same outcome. ”Everything that I have done is by the book, I’ve done everything with the best interests of Wellingtonians at heart. “What we have are some people who relitigate decisions, play politics, play political theatre because that is the nature of Wellington City Council. I stick by my decisions.” Lindsay McKenzie is the former CEO of Tasman District Council. Whanau believed the council had not reached the threshold for a Crown observer but she accepted that was the Government’s decision. She said the council would never be perfect. ”That’s due to the personalities that are in the room. When you disagree so fundamentally on things like values, policies or so forth, it’s going to cause tensions, it’s going to be robust. “We’ve never going to be best friends and that’s probably something I was naive about when I was first mayor.” Whanau spoke to Simeon Brown last night who told her the observer was there to help the council. She has exchanged numbers with McKenzie this morning and will set up a meeting with him as soon as possible. Whanau said she expected McKenzie to observe and provide guidance to ensure the council was meeting its legislative requirements. She did not expect him to attend airport board meetings with her, but he will attend council meetings, workshops and meet with elected members one-on-one. She didn’t think having an observer was going to be as dramatic as people thought. ”Because there’s an observer there, we’ll have councillors possibly watch themselves.” Whanau said observing the capital city could be quite different from McKenzie’s experience at provincial councils. Asked whether councillors had thrown her under the bus, Whanau said; “You’d have to ask them”. Whanau said she had not been treated unfairly by her own council and said that it was just political theatre. Not every councillor thought she was a great leader but she had a great relationship with the majority of her peers, Whanau said. She didn’t think Wellingtonians were embarrassed by having a Crown observer, and she did not feel she had been picked on by the Government because she was aligned with the Green Party. Whanau said between $400 million and $600m in capital spending could be cut after the failed airport sale. Asked whether there would be redundancies or a hiring freeze internally at the council to save money, Whanau said cutting capital spending would have a flow-on on effect in operating spending but she “couldn’t say definitively”. Whanau said the Golden Mile project was sacred to her because she campaigned on it strongly. ”There’s a lot of negative talk around this project but at the end of the day it’s the transformational stuff that makes our city liveable, walkable, all that good stuff.” McKenzie has significant governance and senior leadership experience in local government, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement yesterday. “When Invercargill City Council was facing governance issues, Mr McKenzie was called upon as an external appointee to support its governance performance improvement programme.” “He also has strong financial acumen, which is reflected in his current appointment as an Independent Member of the Nelson City Council audit, risk and finance cCommittee.” Brown revealed he had sought advice on possible Government intervention after the council stopped the controversial sale of its 34% share in the airport – upending the Long Term Plan (LTP). The council now has to amend the LTP and possibly cut hundreds of millions of dollars in capital spending to create additional debt headroom to respond to the insurance risks the airport sale was designed to solve. Brown said the decision to appoint a Crown observer was not one that he took lightly. “However, my assessment is that the financial and behavioural challenges facing the council represent a significant problem as set out in Part 10 of the Local Government Act 2002.” Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning, Brown said McKenzie will sort through the “dysfunction between personalities” at Wellington City Council and will help the mayor and councillors to “get on”. He said McKenzie would provide external advice and assist with a fresh pair of eyes, though it’s up to the council whether it follows the Crown observer’s guidance. ”[He is] someone else who … has not been part of all the drama over the last little while and can provide an extra set of advice.” Nelson mayor Nick Smith said McKenzie’s appointment is something the region should be proud of, given his experience as both CEO of Tasman District Council and interim chief executive at Nelson City Council. In a Facebook post, Smith said “the problems at Wellington City Council will test Lindsay’s skills with a difficult combination of infrastructure, financial and governance woes”. “We wish him, Mayor Tory Whanau and Wellington’s councillors the very best as they attempt to stabilise the council and sort the Capital’s major challenges.” McKenzie’s term will last until the end of July 2025 or earlier if appropriate. “Mr McKenzie will provide the support and advice necessary to assist the council as it delivers an amended Long-Term Plan that works for the city, its ratepayers, and communities”, Brown said. Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
