Council tries to dig itself out of Maori board hole

David Taipari. Photo / Supplied

Auckland councillors are meeting behind closed doors tomorrow to try to dig themselves out of a political and legal hole over a multimillion-dollar funding package for the unelected Maori Statutory Board.

The council is involved in a legal fight with the board after responding to a public uproar and cutting its annual budget from $3.4 million to an indicative $1.9 million. The nine-member board has gone to the High Court to challenge the decision on the basis the $3.4 million budget met the "reasonable" costs of the board as set out in the legislation that set it up.

The matter is set down for a court hearing on May 2. Faced with what one source said was an unwinnable case, the council leadership is keen to reach an out-of-court settlement.

A council source yesterday said that having two arms of the council - the governing body and the board - in court against each other was a "bad look", as was ratepayers funding both legal teams.

The source said a group of three councillors continuing dialogue with the board - finance committee chairwoman Penny Webster, City Vision-Labour councillor Richard Northey and Citizens & Ratepayers leader Christine Fletcher - would report back at tomorrow's extraordinary meeting. They would update the full council on progress of negotiations for the board's budget for the rest of the financial year. This was initially set at $2,066,000 and reduced to $950,000 when councillors got the political jitters.

The source said that if the two parties were able to find a solution for this year's budget, it could be the basis for settling the coming 2011-2012 budget of between $1.9 million and $3.4 million.

The board, however, has been resolute about the $3.4 million funding package, which chairman David Taipari has said met the "reasonable costs of the board's operations, secretariat and independent advisers".

Mr Taipari has insisted the board went through the proper process set out in law, including seeking the help of an independent consultant, working with council officers and getting the unanimous backing of the council's finance committee.

One councillor, who did not want to be named, said the council leadership was "desperate to salvage this train wreck".

"Maori are very annoyed the council's leadership did a u-turn on the initial $3.4 million funding agreement. At the same time the Auckland public was staggered this amount had even been agreed to in the first place," the councillor said. "This whole thing has been the biggest political embarrassment of the past six months. Rest assured, this is all about trying to amend some bridges with Maori and the Auckland public."

Board members have started sitting as full members with voting rights on 11 council committees.

MAORI WRANGLE

* Maori funding row heading to court
* Maori Statutory Board wants original $3.4 million funding package
* Auckland Council seeking compromise
* Ratepayers funding both sides in court