Former Auckland Council mayoral staff lose their jobs

Several staff who worked for former Auckland Mayor Phil Goff are being made redundant. Photo / Dean Purcell.

The changing of the guard in the Auckland mayoral office will see about nine staff lose their jobs.

The Herald understands they are mostly policy and communications staff hired by former Mayor Phil Goff, who are on individual employment contracts with conditions that made it clear that continuity with a new mayor was not guaranteed.

New Mayor Wayne Brown has kept most of the administrative staff who worked for Goff and is in the process of hiring his own “political” staff.

Auckland Council is different from other councils in New Zealand in that the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act provides the mayor with a budget of about $5 million a year to hire his own staff and run the office independently of the council bureaucracy.

Mayor Wayne Brown is hiring his own political staff. Photo / Michael Craig

Council governance director Phil Wilson said he could not comment about the employment details of individuals, saying the council is still working through the employment arrangements with the staff from the former Mayor’s office.

“The team in Mayor Goff’s office was made up of many different types of roles – from administrative roles to specialist advisors and a chief of staff.

“Political roles, which previously included the chief of staff and a director of political strategy and government relations, were Mayoral appointments and fixed-term contract roles,” he said.

Wilson said the mixed employment model of political roles and staff on individual contracts lends itself to looking after staff and meeting the needs of the Mayor.

“It also means that we get the right balance of continuity, retained knowledge, organisational relationships and valued experience, as well as certainty for team members, and means we can offer redeployment opportunities within the council organisation or group and redundancy options if this cannot be achieved.

“Each staff member is being worked with individually, to achieve the right outcome for them,” Wilson said.

A mayoral spokesman said employment arrangements in the previous mayor’s office are the responsibility of the previous mayor and the council chief executive.

“Mayor Brown has been assured the council has worked in the utmost good faith with employees affected by the previous mayor’s decision not to seek re-election,” the spokesman said.