Councillors on Auckland Transport board face the axe

As Mayor of Auckland City, Christine Fletcher was responsible for the $211 million Britomart transport project which has transformed the city's rail network. Photo / NZ Herald

Mayor opposes call to bar elected members from Auckland Transport’s governing body.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown opposes a plan to stop councillors serving as board members on Auckland Transport, which is mostly made up of unelected business people who spend more than 30 per cent of ratepayers' money.

The proposal would see councillors Mike Lee and Christine Fletcher dumped from the board of Auckland Transport.

The pair have made a significant contribution to public transport and have more experience on Auckland transport issues than most of the non-elected directors.

As Mayor of Auckland City, Mrs Fletcher was responsible for the $211 million Britomart transport project which has transformed the city's rail network.

Mr Lee, former Auckland Regional Council chairman, led the move to electrify the rail network, initiated the city rail link and progressed the Hop card and integrated ticketing.

Last night, Mr Brown said he continued to support councillors serving on the board of Auckland Transport to ensure elected oversight of Auckland's "most important" issue.

Mr Brown has always supported elected representatives having oversight of the seven council-controlled organisations (CCOs), of which Auckland Transport is by far the largest.

Last night, Mr Lee said he was reassured by Mr Brown's position and confident it would prevail at today's CCO governance and monitoring committee. Mr Lee said elected representatives provided corporate memory to the novel Auckland Transport model and "reminded directors and senior management that there were people called ratepayers who pay most of the bills".

A report to the committee said "best practice would be to not have elected members on CCOs boards due to the inherent conflict of interest".

Decisions, decisions

• Two councillors sit on board of Auckland Transport
• Council bosses wanted to scrap elected members on transport board
• Mayor Len Brown wants to keep elected members on board
• Council committee will decide the matter today.