KEY POINTS:
Fancy A quick ciggie but it's too wet and windy outside? Get a job with a Westie council.
Nearly $50,000 of ratepayers' money was spent on a shelter to protect 50 smokers from the cold and wet at the recently built Waitakere City Council complex.
Although the civic centre is officially a smoke-free workplace, the self-described "Eco-City" decided to build a "time out" gazebo - the one place where smoking is officially permitted on council premises.
Asked why the council would spend that much money on a shelter for staff smokers when employees from many other workplaces brave the elements, council spokesman Dai Bindoff said the centre should be a place of civic pride.
"Having lots of people smoking in doorways and in other random places isn't a good image when trying to promote a smokefree environment," Bindoff said.
"So one benefit of the shelter is that it clusters smokers away from the main public areas. It also means that butts are contained in one place."
Available for use only during tea or meal breaks, the decision to build the shelter was an operational matter, made by chief executive Harry O'Rourke, and not voted on by elected councillors.
Agenda minutes show the council considered a total ban on smoking before moving offices to the new site last June.
"There would probably be insufficient time before the move to notify all staff and work through any arising workplace issues," a May 2006 report stated.
Only 50 out of 700 staff smoke and Bindoff rejected suggestions it was built to benefit senior management or politicians. No directors smoke and perhaps only two managers, he said.
The shelter doubled as a meeting point for emergency evacuations, said Bindoff, and could be used as storage unit.
In an email to colleagues about the Herald on Sunday's inquiries, Councillor Derek Battersby said it was important that smokers were catered for.
"Let's look at Queen St, the Golden Mile. You see nice young ladies in their corporate suits and men in there [sic] nice suits huddling between the shards of buildings like lost soles [sic] sucking on the weed."
