Regional councillor Jenny Brash says she's sick and tired of Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy's attitude. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Regional councillor Jenny Brash says she's sick and tired of Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy's attitude. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Upper Hutt's mayor got at icy reception at a Wellington Water Committee meeting this morning after calling for an urgent review of the company.
One of his elected member colleagues said they were "sick and tired" of his negative attitude, while another said his proposal left them feeling stunned.
But mayor Wayne Guppy said he wasn't surprised by their response.
"You're accepting mediocrity and I'll continue to challenge it," he told them towards the end of the fiery meeting.
The heated exchange comes after Audit New Zealand raised concerns the company's non-financial measurement systems were inadequate, specifically around response times on callouts.
Guppy claims Wellington Water wasn't transparent about those concerns.
He wrote to the committee expressing his council's dissatisfaction around Wellington Water's performance measures, delivery, and a lack of transparency and communication.
"We were concerned directors were writing letters to the auditor and the shareholders had not been informed."
But at the meeting today committee chairman David Bassett said he has been kept informed of the issue and has communicated relating correspondence.
He said committee members, representing council shareholders, could be assured further information would be given to them as it came to hand.
Bassett said there was currently little to discuss because Audit New Zealand is yet to issue its final report after verbally raising concerns.
Wellington Water board chairman Geoff Dangerfield said there was no definitive timeline for that report, but hoped the issue would be resolved in the next two to three weeks.
Porirua mayor Anita Baker said she was "stunned" by Guppy's letter and saw no need for a review.
"We haven't got the time or the money to waste on it."
She accused Guppy of going on the attack against Wellington Water and said he wasn't constructive.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Regional councillor Jenny Brash said she absolutely objected to undertaking a review.
She said she was sick and tired of Guppy's negativity.
When he tried to interject after that comment Brash snapped: "Every time you open your mouth you are negative."
Guppy said he made no apology for his letter and pitched the review as an opportunity to examine how they are reported to as shareholder councils.
"As a committee we should be told there are issues and work on ways to improve it."
Guppy was clearly unhappy with Wellington Water during the committee meeting, even criticising the language in the company's update report.
"There's a lot of flowery language in here that really doesn't tell us anything- "the company is in good heart", well what the hell does that mean?"
He said the committee "needs facts" and if Wellington Water said in a report that something was going to save them money, it also needed to say how much.
Wellington Water chief executive Colin Crampton, who wrote the report, said numbers on savings and benefits would be provided in the next update.
He said he wrote the company was in "good heart" to express the end of a tough year for staff with major asset failures, a backlog of leaks, and Covid-19.
The committee received and noted Guppy's letter but did not support proceeding with a review of Wellington Water.
