KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Mayor John Banks has today delivered a message to his chief executive David Rankin, who is refusing to release details of the input by consultants on a radical plan to reshape Auckland.
Mr Banks said ratepayers had a right to know what input consultants had into Mr Rankin's draft plan for a 26-member supercity.
"I would hope that sooner, rather than later, all advice we have received will be made public," Mr Banks said.
Mr Rankin has spent upwards of $410,000 on consultants, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a former council officer, John Williamson, to help draw up the draft plan, which will form the basis of a submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance.
The plan is the most radical outlined for Auckland. Even right-wing groups like the Employers and Manufacturers Association(Northern) and the One Auckland Trust, headed by consultant Grant Kirby, have called for the retention of community boards.
Mr Rankin said consultants had worked with a small team of officers that had drawn up the plan. The consultants' input included fleshing out concepts, developing drafts and putting together the final draft report.
Mr Rankin has refused to say what role the consultants played in the controversial proposal to axe community boards and replace them with one "neighbourhood" councillor for about 60,000 people.
Community board leaders believe Mr Rankin has ignored their wishes to focus on the big picture at the expense of local democracy.
Western Bays community board chairman Bruce Kilmister said while Mr Rankin had $410,000 of ratepayers' money to spend on consultants, he had struggled to get any council resources to hold two public meetings in his ward on the Royal Commission.
"I couldn't even offer a cup of tea," he said.
The Herald has asked Mr Rankin to release a copy of all the advice he received from consultants, including draft reports, under the urgency provisions of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.
Mr Rankin said today he would respond to the request.
The regional governance committee is expected to make changes to local democracy when it consider the draft plan tomorrow.
