Engineering a smooth transition

Mark Ford (right) with Rodney Hide as the minister announces Ford is to chair the ATA. Photo / Richard Robinson

For the past 15 years Mark Ford has been responsible for ensuring when Aucklanders turn their taps on, high quality water gushes out, and when they flush their lavatories, the waste disappears with minimum impact on the environment.

His new task, as chairman of the Auckland Transition Agency, is to design a new ship of state for the region which, hopefully, won't immediately founder - well not on its maiden voyage. All in just 18 months.

Ford's solution is to treat it as just another engineering task, akin to building the Waikato River pipeline or upgrading the Mangere sewage plant.

He's been given a project and told he has to deliver up a One City model for handing over to the first mayor and council in October-November 2010.

He ducks discussing potential political obstacles in his way, preferring to see it as a "logical systematic process" to be divided into "manageable bites".

"The only way we're going to deliver this is absolute project disciplines, defining the workstreams, defining the end date and getting whatever resources we need to do it on time. One of the major things is getting an understanding of the assets and liabilities that are out there."

He's in the boardroom of his old empire, Watercare Services, which he doesn't officially depart from until June 30. The Government has still not told him where they plan to house ATA. But lack of a permanent home has not stopped the action.

Ford and fellow board members, lawyer Miriam Dean, QC, accountant and BNZ chairman John Waller, former Rodney Mayor John Law and businessman Wayne Walden have begun meeting on a regular basis.

Ford has also begun appointing his tight team of "consultants" along with Treasury boffin Chris Mackenzie. As acting chief executive of ATA, he has seconded Rodney District Council chief executive Rodger Kerr-Newell. Also seconded to handle media relations, is Clive Nelson, who has the same role at Watercare.

Ford says the first task is do due diligence on the vast array of assets and social programmes and other "liabilities"of the various amalgamating cities.

"To make that work we have to sit down and come up with work streams and each one becomes a project in itself. Then we give a person management of that and a timetable. It's all very engineering-oriented, all very process-driven."

An added complication is that while the revolution is being planned, the business of Auckland governance can't grind to a halt. Which leaves the future leaders of the new Auckland Council potential hostages to the existing councils.

So to avoid the temptation for existing politicians to borrow up large and commit the new council to the cost of their parochial pet projects, the legislation added the requirement that any new expenditure worth over $20,000 which became a charge on the new council, has to get the approval of ATA.

As a result, the agency has already begun talks with the Ports of Auckland and its owners Auckland Regional Holdings and the Auckland Regional Council, about the owner's decision to make a multimillion-dollar cash injection into the port.

Another issue for ATA will be Auckland City's new $23 million rubbish and recycling contract for Waiheke Island. It is likely to be controversial, if only because just about everything involving Waiheke seems to end up in controversy.

Ford hasn't sighted anything yet, but when it arrives, they'll look at the processes used "and if there are no probity issues, we'll take the recommendation already agreed. We can't suddenly open the whole thing up again."

ATA's approach to the eight existing councils Long Term Council Community Plans will be similar. Every three years, councils have to produce a report setting priorities for the following decade.

The latest editions are in draft form, and ATA has to check through these for potential traps set for the incoming council. Outside consultants with experience in LTCCPs have begun leafing through the documents. Councils need approval urgently to strike rates for next year.

Ford says what ATA has to consider is whether the debt the individual councils will leave for the new council is reasonable. "I'm not worried about debt they're thinking to contract 5 years after the council is formed, because that becomes the democratic right of the new council to look at. It's what they sign up now that the new council has to honour that we've got to look at."

The consultants will chart each LTCCP according to a template, and Ford expects approvals or otherwise to be made in the next week or so.

They won't be checking up on whether a local dog ranger needs a new vehicle or not, the process will be more about bench-marking against previous years, and where there are anomalies or differences, asking questions.

He has no doubts there will be attempts to sneak the odd pet project through, and this might not be picked up initially. He plans a green, amber, red approach to approvals, the amber being ATA reserving the right to call for more information before making it, red or green.

As the Royal Commission into Auckland Governance made clear, one essential to the success of creating a super city lies in the successful integration of the eight council's information and communications technology.

Despite the sceptics, Ford is hopeful that he can have one system up and running in 18 months time, though he admits he speaks from a position of "naivety - I'm not an IT specialist."

But he'll get one to project manage that workstream. He's hoping that among the various councils there is an existing system that can be adapted to run customer services, rates bills etc, for the new council.

As for headquarters, Ford says that will come to pragmatism. "It's probably more logical to have it centrally, but we're not closed-minded, it will come back to efficiencies."

It's likely that the city will retain a presence in service centres around the region - "you don't immediately close down the public interface, you get them used to change" - but he's waiting for reports on that.

"It's got to be done on analysis, not on heart, but I'd be surprised if they closed down those satellites."

As for passive resistance from the heartland, Ford says in his dealings with the chief executives, "they're all committed to making this work.

We met last week and they all made an absolute commitment." He says the Royal Commission envisioned one big team of all the chief executives working in one committee.

He's chosen to have a small team of consultants, who will work closely with the CEOs on specific problem areas.

"The key thing, Auckland's got to carry on being governed for the next 18 months. We cannot cause a hiatus."