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Auckland supercity to determine fate of CCOs

Auckland's new supercity will have the power to hire and fire directors of the new council-controlled organisations (CCO's) from the first day it takes power.Auckland Council will also have the right to discard the council controlled organisations, though

Georgina Bond
Mon, 24 May 2010

Auckland’s new supercity will have the power to hire and fire directors of the new council-controlled organisations (CCO’s) from the first day it takes power.

Auckland Council will also have the right to discard the council controlled organisations, though possibly not the transport CCO.

Changes to Auckland Council’s control over the seven CCOs that will spearhead delivery of core services across the city were revealed this afternoon with the reporting back of the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill by the Auckland governance legislation committee.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide said the Auckland Council will have total control of the CCOs, appointing the chair and deputies of each, including Auckland Transport.

“It’s a council that is in total charge,” said Mr Hide.

“On day one the council can fire the CCO board and appoint their own board members.

“That to me makes it very clear in legislation that it’s the council that will have the future of Auckland in its own hands.”

Manukau City Mayor and supercity mayor hopeful Len Brown said the power would be exercised with caution, particularly as the council was bedded in.

“It would be inappropriate to consider firing of any of the new directors when bringing the structure together,” he said.

Mr Brown said there was nervousness about the extent of corporatisation under the new structure.

“But we will have, by November, significant structures with which to put in place corporate structures the community can be pleased with.”

Public meetings of the CCOs will now also have to be held in  public.

Auckland mayor John Banks said public meetings would help ensure transparency.

“The best local government is local decisions being made in a transparent way. I’m all for having meetings in public. There’s not much in local government that is secret, given the use of ratepayers money,” he said.

The Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill is the third and final one that will complete the legislative framework for the reform of Auckland governance and will go through its remaining parliamentary stages over the next few weeks.

The changes do not allow for the privatisation of Watercare and any assets owned by Watercare would have to revert to the council if it decided it did not want Watercare to be the water and wastewater service provider after 2015.

Only Auckland Transport is being set up as a statutory CCO, requiring an act of Parliament to disband it.

Changes to Auckland Council’s control over its substantive CCO’s announced this afternoon include:
* The Auckland Council will now appoint the chair and deputy of each CCO
* It must now have a stated and public CCO accountability policy which “clearly establishes that the council has control over its CCOs.”
* CCOs are now made subject to the council’s long-term and other strategic plans
* CCOs will now be required to have their meetings open to the public and must report quarterly, rather than half-yearly.

Georgina Bond
Mon, 24 May 2010
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Auckland supercity to determine fate of CCOs
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