Plan to dump councillors from Auckland Transport board

File photo / NZ Herald

Auckland bureaucrats have come up with a plan to dump councillors from sitting on the board of Auckland Transport and weakening the political process of appointing board members to council-controlled organisations (CCOs).

The CCO governance and monitoring committee will tomorrow consider a report to make elected members "ineligible to serve as a director of a CCO".

When the Super City was set up in 2010, the Government decided elected members could not sit on the boards of CCOs, except two board seats on Auckland Transport because of its size and importance.

Councillors Mike Lee and Chris Fletcher have been on the board of Auckland Transport since 2010.

A report, by senior council adviser Josie Meuli and approved by chief executive Stephen Town, also wants to scrap the shortlisting and interviewing process of CCO board members been made by the CCO governance and monitoring committee.

It wants the process replaced by a nomination panel made up of Mr Town, Mayoral chief of staff Phil Wilson, CCO chairwoman and deputy mayor Penny Hulse, a member of the Maori Statutrory Board and an independent governance professional.

The committee will still make the final decision on appointments.

At the time the Super City was being set up, there was widespread concerns about the size and power of the seven CCOs.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide and Transport Minister Steven Joyce said that the "Auckland Council will appoint board members, and have the power to remove them".

Auckland Mayor Len Brown has been a strong supporter of Aucklanders having direct input into the composition of the boards, which control about 70 per cent of the assets owned by Auckland ratepayers.