Auckland Council reform: Council boss explains the new set-up

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown promised to take control of the council-controlled organisations.

• Auckland Council has centralised most of its planning functions to come under the direct political control of the council itself.
• Some of the council-controlled organisations have lost key functions or been abolished altogether.
• Almost all staff have retained their jobs.

Auckland Transport has lost its policymaking role. Economic development in the city is now the job of the council, rather than the council-controlled organisation known as Tātaki Auckland Unlimited.

And Eke Panuku, the big agency in charge of property management and “urban regeneration” in town centres all over the city, has been abolished altogether.

Mayor Wayne Brown’s sweeping reform of council bodies has arrived.

Last week, Auckland Council assumed direct control of much of the work of the council-controlled organisation (CCOs), setting up several new divisions inside its central organisation. Those divisions are fully accountable through the chief executive to the mayor and council.

The most significant of these is the Auckland Urban Development Office (AUDO), a super agency responsible for the land-use, “place-making” and related planning functions that used to be handled by Eke Panuku and several other parts of the council.

“I ran on a platform of taking back control of so-called council-controlled organisations,” Brown said last week, referring to his 2022 election campaign pledge. “We’re on track with what was promised.”

He said the structure will “improve strategic alignment between council’s decisions and CCO activities, increase democratic accountability and transparency, and deliver better value for Aucklanders. This will get the council group fit for purpose to realise Auckland’s growth potential”.

Council officials say cost savings will be modest: $2.4 million, “net of disestablished roles and new established roles”. In an exclusive interview last week, council chief executive Phil Wilson told the Herald this figure comes on top of the $66m in savings “already achieved” against the 2024/25 budget.

The new set-up changes the lines of responsibility and will co-ordinate the work, but there’s no wholesale abandonment of the people doing the work. Top staff were invited to apply for new leadership roles but Wilson said “everyone else was pretty much confirmed as is”.

“We’ve brought over 99% of staff from the different organisations. We didn’t want to go all wobbly. You keep the people and that helps to keep the confidence in what you’re doing. I’m optimistic. I think most people are. They’re excited.”

Auckland Council chief executive Phil Wilson.

The new development office, the AUDO, has a lot to do.

“We have 100 town centres and a lot of them need a bit of love,” Wilson said.

But in the old set-up, it didn’t always happen when and where it was needed.

Eke Panuku operated by selling unwanted property and using the proceeds to fund rejuvenation projects in the same centre. That was easy in places like Takapuna and Wynyard Quarter, where there’s commercial interest in the land, but harder in a place such as, say, Papatoetoe.

“Eke Panuku operated the way [the] council instructed it to,” said Wilson. “But what if Papatoetoe needs the help?”

He promised there would be “more creative” approaches and pointed to Northcote, where property has been bought, developed and then sold to strengthen the local community.

The AUDO will also take over central-city development, preparing for the opening of the City Rail Link in the middle of next year. And it will be active in semi-rural places like Drury in the far south and Kumeū in the northwest.

“The Urban Development Office has good potential in greenfields areas,” Wilson said, “because it will have a mandate to co-ordinate all the council agencies and the private sector, to get the development we want.”

That same mandate will also allow it to address the site of the new CRL railway station of Maungawhau (Mt Eden), which is currently a wasteland.

“It needs packaging for developers,” Wilson said, “and this is a vehicle to do that. We’ll be able to pull it all together with sequenced financing, working with the Government.”

The AUDO will be led by Patrick Dougherty, until recently the general manager of construction and innovation at Kainga Ora. He will have a staff of 170 (not all fulltime, and not all yet in place), including 111 from Eke Panuku and 43 from the central council.

The new property management division is in the hands of Ian Wheeler, who had a similar role at Eke Panuku. He has a staff of 133, comprising 87 from Eke Panuku and 46 from the council’s old property division.

“We’re the second-biggest property owner in the country,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to be a bit smarter about how we operate now.”

The changes to Auckland Transport (AT) are part of a bigger plan for reform. The transport agency awaits new legislation promised by the Government for August. In the interim, the AT board has delegated its policymaking role to the council.

Tātaki will continue to manage the stadiums and Auckland Live venues such as the Aotea Centre, the Civic and the Auckland Town Hall. It will also keep promoting Auckland as a host for major events.

But the new Economic Development Office (EDO) is situated inside the main council operation. It’s headed by former Tātaki executive Pam Ford.

Pam Ford, head of the council's new Economic Development Office.

Ford has 99 staff, including 38 from Tātaki and 57 from council programmes such as The Southern Initiative, which helps with small business advice and upskilled career pathways in Manukau and elsewhere.

Wilson said the new council structure will complement the Government’s just-announced “regional deal” for Auckland.

“We’re getting the city on the same page,” he said. “We both want economic prosperity, more housing, more potential for work and stronger communities. We want our kids to stay in Auckland because their prospects are good here.”

Simon Wilson is a senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.