Unelected boards will be open to scrutiny

Len Brown. Photo / Richard Robinson

The unelected boards of businesspeople running most of the Super City services will be required to hold public meetings.

The leading mayoral candidates, John Banks and Len Brown, say they would require council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to hold public meetings, except for items of a confidential nature.

The seven CCOs would also have to issue agendas and minutes.

Public concerns about the scope and power of CCOs - which will run about 75 per cent of Super City services and spend hundreds of millions of dollars of ratepayers' money a year - led the Government to require them to hold two public meetings a year.

But Mr Banks and Mr Brown want to go further to strengthen their accountability and openness for ratepayers.

Said Mr Brown: "The CCOs should publish their agendas and their meetings should be open to the public."

He said he would start with requiring the two biggest CCOs - Auckland Transport and Watercare Services - to hold public meetings along standing orders used by councils to see how they shaped up. There was no reason why the other five CCOs should not operate under the public glare, he said.

A spokesman for Mr Banks said he would require the seven CCOs to hold their normal board meetings in public, as well as the two public meetings a year.

At present, councils generally allow CCO boards to operate behind closed doors. By their nature, CCOs are designed to take control away from politicians and the public to get things done through a statement of corporate intent set by councils and six-monthly or more regular reporting.

But this can lead to CCOs and councils taking decisions behind closed doors on important matters, such as water prices.

Mark Ford, who will chair the mega-Auckland Transport CCO responsible for spending about $1.4 billion a year of ratepayers' and taxpayers' money, was relaxed at the possibility of public meetings being part of the statement of corporate intent between the council and the CCO.

"We have got to win over the confidence of the public. There are various mechanisms - performance service, transparency and a whole series of things," he said.

Likewise, Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey, who will chair the waterfront development agency, was comfortable with holding public meetings.

"I think the public are going to very much be a player in the CCOs. They are going to feel a sense of ownership."

Businessman Graeme Hawkins, who chairs Watercare Services, was a bit more circumspect about holding public meetings, saying it was a question of practicality and efficiency of decision-making.

He did not disagree with the principal of public accountability, but questioned if the best way to do that was through the Auckland Council or the public at large.

"If you have that many masters we will be back into the sort of political decision-making forums that is trying to be avoided by the creation of CCOs."

Mr Hawkins said he had not been aware of any disquiet about anything Watercare had done over its long history, saying it was an example of how a CCO could work efficiently along commercial lines to deliver a public service.