Mayor Wayne Brown is on the warpath against the council-controlled organisations. But is he right to do this? Composite Photo / NZME
Mayor Wayne Brown is on the warpath against the council-controlled organisations. But is he right to do this? Composite Photo / NZME
Opinion by Simon Wilson
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues. He joined the Herald in 2018.
They’ve done it. The pool uses repurposed pontoons from elsewhere to create a safe swimming zone at the bottom of the terraced steps at Karanga Plaza, at the western end of the Wynyard Crossing bridge.
There will be lifeguards. Lane swimming and free fun for families and everyone else. Work is nearly finished and the pool will open on December 20. It has cost just $500,000.
As for the bridge itself, which Eke Panuku has put through a complete renovation, it will open this Friday.
It’s a very good example of everything Brown says he stands for: Don’t waste money, listen to public opinion and deliver projects we really want. Follow council commands.
It’s a very good example of a council agency knowing how to deliver, too.
Artist impression of the new pool at the Karanga Plaza steps.
But is Brown pleased?
Apparently not. His plan to abolish Eke Panuku will go to a council vote on Thursday. He may have the numbers to get it passed.
The mayor wants to bring Eke Panuku’s work “in-house”, which means giving it to the main council body. He says this will be cheaper, more efficient and offer more democratic control. But he has not explained how.
This is a terrible turn for the city. The plan is rash and based on a set of false premises. It puts at risk regeneration projects currently under way all over the region, from Pukekohe to Whangaparāoa. It ignores both the complexities of the agency’s work and its many achievements to date.
Brown is treating Eke Panuku as a rogue agency, impervious to instruction, even though it has been doing what he wants, not only with the swimming pool but in so many other ways. I’ve outlined some of those below.
So why abolish it?
Because, as we head into election year, Brown is turning into Action Man. In my view, he’s trying to burn off potential rivals for the mayoralty by looking big, bold and decisive. Never mind that plans like this won’t make things better.
I’ve watched the way the council operates since its inception in 2010 and, in my view, there is no way the main council administration could have delivered that pool, for that price, in that timeframe.
And no way it will be able to do the complex property deals and other work Eke Panuku is charged with. Despite having many great staff, as an organisation the council lacks the efficiency, expertise and long-term planning mindset required. And that will undermine the confidence of the construction firms, developers and community service providers Eke Panuku works with.
This commercial work is important. Put simply, the Eke Panuku model involves buying and selling land, and supervising the way developers use it, in order to create quality town centres and provide capital for public works: parks, playgrounds, civic centres, weekend markets, functional transport and other services.
In Northcote, where new apartment blocks are popping up fast, Eke Panuku is rejuvenating a tired town centre. This has involved nearly 40 property purchases, nearly all of them done without animosity. It’s a model of its type.
An image of how Eke Panuku wants to develop the Northcote town centre.
In Pukekohe, they face even more rapid growth, but unlike in Northcote, there was enormous resistance to change. So Eke Panuku worked closely with the local board and local community to develop, reform and finally create a plan that people are happy with.
It’s taken time, but it’s also given confidence to locals and to developers. Pukekohe has huge potential in the south and thanks to Eke Panuku, it’s likely to be realised.
Think back a couple of years to Queen St, where the rejuvenation was in the hands of Auckland Transport and Auckland Council. So much fuss, and so many mediocre solutions kept being proposed.
Then Brown’s predecessor, Phil Goff, put Eke Panuku in charge. The agency had the skills to co-ordinate its planning with big commercial projects like Commercial Bay. Standards rose, cut-through decision-making rose, work got done quickly and life is returning to the old street again.
In Henderson, the going has been really tough, because it’s a seriously deprived area and you can’t solve a social crisis just with urban design.
So Eke Panuku is proceeding slowly, building local support for urban projects that will bring in more economic life. It’s a long, difficult task and it’s impossible to think the council itself could even be bothered.
And in the Wynyard Quarter, Eke Panuku, following on from its predecessor Waterfront Auckland, has master-planned and led the construction of a wholly new commercial and residential precinct, complete with safe streets, parks, a bunch of highly imaginative recreational amenities, very extensive planting and other public features.
Busy time on the waterfront in the Wynyard Quarter, a precinct created by Eke Panuku and its predecessor Waterfront Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
In my view, Wynyard Quarter is outstanding and the council’s response to it should not be to say, let’s get rid of the agency that made it happen.
It should be to require that agency to apply the same high standards to other parts of the city.
Eke Panuku has 19 projects like these under way and many other town centres are keen to get on the list. But if it disappears, the work will slow, become more mediocre and much of it will probably stop altogether.
Eke Panuku is not full of saints and it doesn’t get everything right. Its work is inherently controversial. But is it unaccountable? That’s not true, either.
Like the other CCOs (council-controlled organisations), it has a separate board, but the board members are appointed by the council and can be sacked by the council.
Every term, the mayor, with the backing of the council, writes a letter of expectation (LOE) to each CCO, setting out policy guidelines and anything else it wants to instruct the agency on. The CCOs write statements of intent (SOIs) in response. These documents must be accepted on both sides.
The council sets the budget for each CCO, every year, and holds them to account for spending. The CCOs write annual, half-yearly and quarterly reports, and appear before the whole council to explain them. The council can summon the CCOs more frequently, and sometimes does, and it has several committees that look more closely at their spending and other matters.
Eke Panuku is not unaccountable. It’s simply wrong to say that. And it beggars belief that after two years in the job, Mayor Brown says he can’t get them to do what he wants. As the Karanga Plaza pool shows, it’s not true.
There’s politics in his position, but there’s very little common sense.
