Maori board rejects mayor's plea to negotiate out of court

Mayor Len Brown. Photo / Greg Bowker

Mayor Len Brown has failed to stop the Maori Statutory Board going to court to overturn an Auckland Council decision to slash its budget.

The board has rejected Mr Brown's desire for a negotiated settlement by filing a statement of claim in the High Court at Auckland yesterday asking the court to uphold a $3.4 million budget approved by the council's strategy and finance committee on February 8.

Faced with a public uproar at the cost of running the board, the unelected members of which are able to sit and vote on 11 council committees, the council voted at a full council meeting on February 15 to reduce the budget to $1.9 million. It also cut the board's budget for the rest of the financial year from $2,060,000 to $950,000.

Last week, Mr Brown called on the board to give up its court action and work with a group of three councillors to sort out the budget row without involving lawyers.

The board has rejected a negotiated settlement and yesterday chairman David Taipari said the litigation was about seeking "clarification, not confrontation" while continuing to operate constructively and in good faith with the council.

The legal action will take the form of a judicial review seeking a declaration from the court that the decision of the strategy and finance committee represented the reasonable costs for the board to meet its statutory obligations.

The board wants the subsequent reduced budget approved by the full council ruledunlawful.

The law that set up the statutory board said the council must reach a funding agreement that meets the "reasonable costs" of the board's operations, secretariat and independent advisers.

The board has hired barrister Paul Dale to fight its case. Lawyers for the board and the council will be paid by Auckland ratepayers.

Mr Taipari said the board had been advised that the legal action should be able to be resolved quickly. The first court hearing is on Monday.

Yesterday, Mr Brown expressed disappointment that the issue was going to court.

"I would have liked the board to continue solely with negotiations, rather than going to court. We need to get on with establishing the new council and I will continue to work with the board to see if we can find an acceptable solution," Mr Brown said.

He described the board's legal action as understandable given that the Government's legislation that established the board had been "loose" and resulted in a lot of division.

Meanwhile, Mr Brown has appointed a nine-member Pacific Peoples Advisory Panel from nearly 100 applications.

They are the Rev Uesifili UNasa, Sione Tuitahi, Dr Robert Woonton, Monique Faleafa, Stephen Stehlin, Sina Aiolupotea-Aiono, Orchid Atimalala, Richard Pamatatau and Filemoni Timoteo.

He is also considering co-opting one member each from four Pacific advisory groups run by previous councils. All up, the panel is expected to cost $71,000 a year to run, mostly for meetings fees, plus council staff support costs.

Advisory board members will not sit on council committees, but communicate the interests of their communities into the council's strategies, policies, plans and bylaws.

Mr Brown is expected to appointed a nine-member Ethnic Advisory Board next week.

LIST OF DEMANDS

What the board wants from the court:

* A declaration that the $3.4 million budget approved by the strategy and finance committee on February 8 is the "reasonable" costs of the board.

* A ruling that the Auckland Council's decision on February 14 to cut the budget and not pay non-board members to sit on council committee was unlawful.

* An order for interim funding.

* An order for council to enter into urgent good faith negotiations to approve the $3.4 million budget.

* Costs.