Brewer king of mobile callers

Cameron Brewer. Photo / Doug Sherring

He likes to be known as a watchdog on frivolous council spending.

He warned in April of the potential for "a seven-figure blow-out within the first year on Blackberries and laptops" for Auckland's 170 elected representatives.

"It's completely out of control."

And Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer's warning now seems remarkably prescient - as new figures reveal he ran up a bigger mobile phone bill than any other councillor or board member, more even than Mayor Len Brown.

Brewer spent almost $1400 of ratepayer money on his cellphone in seven months, according to cellphone records obtained by the Herald on Sunday. The Orakei councillor's bill was $1368, about $900 more than the average.

Brewer said he would try to spend less and admitted some of the calls were personal.

He has offered to pay some of the money back.

"I was surprised and will be working with council staff as to where I can get a better plan," he said.

"I need to assess just how I'm using my phone - I suspect I overly use my phone - but for us councillors it's pretty much our office and secretary all in one."

Brewer said he needed his phone to be accessible to the people of Orakei and didn't claim any other expenses. He didn't have a secretary or a ward office.

He admitted he used the phone for "a lot of short personal calls and quite a lot of text messages".

The bill was not a good look for the right-wing councillor, who has been vocal in his opposition of council spending.

"I acknowledge that my brand, and the reason people voted me in, was to stand up against wasteful spending of ratepayer money."

Brewer's bill was the highest out of 129 elected representatives' bills released under the Official Information Act.

The next highest was Waitemata local board member Jesse Chalmers at $1088.

"I don't think it's that high to be honest," Chalmers said.