The Government was advertising its intervention plan for about a week. Ministers don’t use words like ”shambles” and “shemozzle” unless they plan to fix the shambles, especially when they have the power to fix it.
It’s always possible that surprised councillors honestly thought no intervention was coming because no intervention was necessary because they hadn’t done anything wrong at all.
That kind of righteous certainty clearly runs wild at Wellington City Council, judging by the tone-deaf decisions they keep making with absolutely no doubt they’re doing exactly the right thing.
A cycleway has killed business in parts of Newtown? No problem as far as the council is concerned, because it’s the right thing to do.
The Reading Cinema deal that was so shady it prompted leaks just so the public would know what was going on? Get over it, fish and chips paper, says a councillor.
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There were so many issues at Wellington City Council it’s hard to list them all. Leaks, meeting walkouts, money wasted on overpriced bike racks, underfunding of pipes, officials refusing to release information to councillors, officials hiding the Town Hall renovation’s massive budget blow-out from councillors, the collapse of the Long-Term Plan, the lawyer called in for a revenge investigation of councillors offside with the mayor, the mayor fibbing about why she sold her car, the mayor not turning up to work regularly, the mayor’s public airing of her various personal problems.
If there is some room for surprise, it is for the reasons he gave in the end. His taking issue with rates (not debt) paying for the pipes upgrade was a surprise to almost everyone. It felt tenuous given that a number of other councils are doing much the same.
But Brown’s read the room. No one will actually care why he did it. The public just want something done about the most embarrassing council in the country. No one will mind other councils freaking out that they might be next for intervention. There’s too much frustration at stupid council decisions and double-digit rate rises all over the country.
It’s wrong to assume Brown has potentially made a mistake by tying his fortunes to WCC’s. Some have made the argument that by intervening, he now has to fix the place up or will wear any ongoing issues himself.
That’s wrong. He has an out.
If this hands-off, give-them-a-chance-to-fix-it-themselves approach doesn’t work, and the issues continue, he still has the nuclear option: Commissioners.
If that doesn’t work, then he’s in trouble. But that’s years away.
For now, Brown’s winning. He’s framed himself as the grown-up, forced to step in and fix the mess.
In the end, WCC is such a laughing stock, the surprise would actually have been if Brown did not intervene.
