Be patient with early screw-ups, says chief

Doug McKay expects the Super City's first week to be nerve-racking. Photo / Dean Purcell

Super City chief executive Doug McKay says there will be "screw ups" in the early days of the new body, but asks Aucklanders to bear with him.

In his first interview since starting work this month, Mr McKay said the first week of the new Auckland Council would be nerve-racking.

"We will be able to put the key in and turn it on and it will run, but it might run a bit rough for a while.

"There will be screw ups," he said, "But how quickly the new team in the organisation responds to fixing them is how I would like to be judged in that first week, rather than the fact we have had a few."

Mr McKay said information technology was a huge challenge for the Super City, which would inherit more than 2000 software programmes from the existing eight councils.

"There is always risk on something this big but there are mitigation plans," he said.

The appointment of Mr McKay in March as interim chief executive of the Super City for a fixed term to July 2012 is another risk.

The 54-year-old businessman beat 27 other candidates, including several council chief executives, to run the biggest council in Australasia with a staff of about 6000 and a $3.2 billion budget.

The executive chairman of the agency setting up the Super City, Mark Ford, said Mr McKay's background in customer service, driving results-focused organisations, managing performance and leading staff through periods of change would be invaluable as the new council began and developed.

Mr McKay has 30 years of corporate experience, including senior executive roles at Lion Nathan and five years as chief executive of Sealord. Until last year he was executive chairman and chief executive of Independent Liquor.

Yesterday, he said: "We are here to serve the people of Auckland and their representatives. That's my number one goal.

"My business experience makes me confident I know how to get an organisation working to deliver for its stakeholders."

Mr McKay, who has strong roots in Auckland, said he had set himself three goals in the Super City role.

The first was to bring "operational stability" to properly serve the people of Auckland.

Second was to deliver the new democratic model of the Auckland Council and 21 local boards.

"If I don't deliver the local boards, then I will fail. My intention is to ensure the local boards get everything they need."

His third goal was to deliver an "outstanding" spatial plan for Auckland by December next year.

The spatial plan is a document setting out the long-term vision and strategic direction for the region. It will include a regional transport plan, and determine where Auckland's growing population will live, deciding which areas will remain rural and no-go zones for developers.

But Mr McKay will have to get used to dealing with day-to-day controversies, such as the enforcement of bus lane fines.

Asked to comment on that, he said: "I don't know anything about the history of bus lanes."