By Maria Slade – Auckland Issues Fairfax reporter – stuff.co.nz – 8 December  2015:

Centre-right Auckland councillor Cameron Brewer is pondering his future on the city’s political executive.

It’s widely believed the longtime councillor for the well-heeled ward of Orakei will step down at next year’s local government elections.

“No decisions have been made,” he replied when the question was put to him on Tuesday.

However it’s also understood Orakei Local Board chair Desley Simpson will stand for the position in 2016.

She is a Brewer ally and unlikely to compete against the outspoken and popular councillor.

The potential departure of Brewer comes as the centre-right scours the political scene for credible candidates to contest the 2016 elections.

While Labour MP Phil Goff has declared his bid for the mayoralty, so far the right lacks a high profile candidate.

Brewer has reportedly ruled out standing for mayor.

Simpson is married to National Party president Peter Goodfellow, who is understood to be part of the Auckland Future movement aiming to promote centre-right candidates.

Orakei covers the city’s eastern suburbs including Remuera, Mission Bay, Kohimarama and St Johns.

Brewer has held the seat since the Auckland Super City was created in 2010, and was re-elected unopposed in 2013.

Orakei Local Board member Tony Churton believed Simpson would stand and Brewer would step down.

“(Cameron) hasn’t spoken to me about his intentions directly,” he said.

“I have had conversations with existing board members who are going to be standing for the ward position.”

He confirmed that was Simpson, and when asked if that meant Brewer would step down he said: “I would think so”.

Simpson had a lot of support within the board and the community, Churton said.

Mayoral candidate and fellow local board member Mark Thomas also said Simpson was considering a tilt at the job.

“I certainly know Desley has been looking at what she wants to do and how she can best continue the really strong work she’s done in local government.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see her looking to stand in a council role.”

It was Brewer who had encouraged him to stand as a centre-right candidate for the mayoralty, Thomas said.

Board member Ken Baguley welcomed any impending bid from Simpson.

“She’s certainly got strong support through the electorate because she’s done an awful lot of groundwork there, she’s a very enthusiastic local board chairman.

“The bigger issue in my view is getting some more centre-right people across the city,” he said.

Brewer, who was chief executive of the Newmarket Business Association for five years before being elected to the council, has been a vocal critic of left-leaning Mayor Len Brown.

Phil Goff’s candidacy was “very much a case of the same old red wine but in a new bottle”, because the same Brown advisors and funders were now supporting Goff, he said last month.

 – Stuff.co.nz

Media release – 26 November 2015:

Auckland Councillor for Orakei, Cameron Brewer, says it is great news that beautiful Bastion Point has been chosen for the inaugural New Zealand Flower & Garden Show – scheduled for 23 – 27 November 2016.

“An international flower and garden show is a great fit with Auckland given the huge number of gardening enthusiasts across the region and the fact that the region’s growing rapidly as a visitor destination in its own right. It’s wonderful getting a big flower show back in Auckland.

“What’s more the fact that it’s in the eastern suburbs is absolutely brilliant given how much genuine interest and keenness there’ll be from many of our discerning locals.

“As deputy chair of the Ngati Whatua Orakei Reserves Board, it’s particularly pleasing to have Ngati Whatua as a proud partner, warmly opening their whenua for the event.

“This won’t be like any other flower show anywhere else in the world. This will be set on arguably the city’s most stunning vantage point showcasing Auckland’s unique natural environment at its very best.

“Not only will this promote the very best in garden and floral design, but the outstanding Waitemata Harbour backdrop and rich Maori heritage will give this new flower show a real point of difference internationally,” says Mr Brewer.

Ends

Media release – Sunday, 22 November 2015:

Auckland mayoral candidate Phil Goff’s political philosophy and policies will be no different to Len Brown’s and in fact probably even more expensive,” says Auckland Councillor for Orakei, Cameron Brewer.

“In the past week we’ve learnt the Labour Party is in fact broke and that Phil Goff remains absolutely wedded to Labour’s failed position on any significant asset review. There’s two red lights right there.

“Phil Goff’s spin-doctors are desperate to position him as financially prudent and someone who can work well with the National Government. Both are a big stretch.

“This is very much a case of ‘the same old red wine but in a new bottle’ as the same Len Brown political advisors and funders now work to get Goff elected to keep Auckland Council on the same political track.

“This is all just about replacing one Labour mayor with another Labour mayor and strengthening Labour’s stronghold at Auckland Council.

“If he is committing to all these transport projects and spending huge money to make Auckland better, all while keep rates and debt down, then show us the money?

“Goff’s recent criticism, and in fact complete dismissiveness, of Auckland Council reviewing its assets shows just how red his political blood runs. He hadn’t even read the reports, yet spouted a political view based solely on his entrenched 46-year-long Labour Party association.

“That instant reaction proves his instincts remain true Labour. He is not yet thinking what could be best for Auckland ratepayers, or for the financial future and sustainability of the region. He still only thinks Left and always will. What’s more given all the abuse and hatred he’s hurled at John Key over recent years, it’s hard to think he can convince the National Government of much.”

Mr Brewer says Mr Goff was completely offside with the Mayor and almost every councillor who voted on Thursday for more work to be done to fully assess the recommendations made by EY and Cameron Partner reports on the region’s assets. 

“If Goff’s not prepared to take a really serious look at reviewing Auckland’s $40b of assets, with the possibility of selling down, in whole or part, the likes of the Ports of Auckland operating business or council’s 22.4% shareholding in the Auckland International Airport, then ratepayers should be worried.

“Labour will just keep putting its hand out to the poor old ratepayers instead, particularly those ratepayers in higher valued properties where Goff will continue with Brown’s left-wing policy of a low Uniform Annual General Charge which has been hammering areas like the Orakei ward for the past five years. 

“Those in business community who were hoping to see a Phil Goff from the 1980s economic reforming Fourth Labour Government can forget that. He will continue putting business rates up as Brown has done, and as a good Labour man will no doubt push for all sorts of new charges and taxes from the commercial and property sectors.

“As number three in Helen Clark’s Labour Government Goff oversaw tax increases for the likes of those earning over $60,000 and a big blow-out of public sector costs and staff numbers, not to mention the introduction of a raft of PC policies and red-tape. What’s more Labour’s 2002 Local Government Act saw a huge increase in councils’ roles, spending and rates demands across the country.

“More envy taxes and a ‘big bureaucracy’ track record is the last thing Auckland ratepayers need.

“This all just highlights that the centre-right does need to get behind and support one centre-right mayoral candidate and soon. It’s very clear Goff will be well and truly be a Labour candidate. One thing’s for sure, Goff’s not going to be a mayor who will shrink the council bureaucracy and offer any relief to Auckland ratepayers,” says Mr Brewer.

Media release – Thursday, 19 November 2015:

NZ Herald – By Bernard Orsman – Wednesday 18 November 2015:

Auckland Mayor Len Brown spent $3.73 million running the mayoral office in the past financial year, 10 per cent less than the allowable budget of $4.152 million.

Mr Brown’s office today pro-actively released details about his office spend following an Official Information Act request from councillor Cameron Brewer.

The figures show the mayoral office spent $2.32 million on salaries for 21 fulltime and part-time staff – an average of about $110,000 per mayoral staffer.

Mr Brown spent $589,000 on consultants and contractors, but no details were given.

The travel bill was $44,000 and a further $13,000 was spent on cellphones.

There are four purchasing cards in the mayoral office but no credit cards. Mr Brown does not have a credit card.

Spending on P-cards was $655.81 in the 2014-2015 financial year, down from $1309.02 in the previous year.

The cost of running the mayor’s Holden Calais V6 car was $25,432, but this comes out of the mayoral salary.

The response noted that $421,000 on last year’s spend went towards a wide-ranging port review, prompted by a long-running Herald campaign to stop further port expansion into the Waitemata Harbour, and a victory in the High Court by Urban Auckland, a body of architects and urban design professionals, to stop two wharf extensions by Ports of Auckland.

The figures provided to Mr Brewer also show Mr Brown led two international business and economic delegations to China and the United States during the year at a total cost of $26,142. The mayor’s domestic travel bill was $6387.

Under legislation, the mayoral budget is set at 0.2 per cent of the council operational budget. Mr Brown has chosen this to mean 0.2 per cent of the council budget, not 0.2 per cent of the wider council and council-controlled organisations budgets.

Mr Brewer said Mr Brown’s mayoral office budget might be under a set budget, “but in key categories his costs are up on last year, when other council departments and core services have faced cuts”.

“For example staff salaries are up, consultants and contractor costs are up an extra $162,000 to $589,000, and office travel is up by another $13,000 to $44,000.

“Ratepayers will rightly wonder whether employing over 20 people and spending nearly $4 million every year had helped the Mayor. In most people’s eyes the results are not a good return on ratepayers investment,” Mr Brewer said.

– NZ Herald

Media release –  Wednesday, 18 November 2015:

“Len Brown’s use of the tragic events in Paris to help justify his controversial attendance to a completely unrelated climate change junket with ratepayer-funded Auckland Council representatives is completely reprehensible. He needs to withdraw the statement, apologise, and cancel the trip forthwith,” says Auckland Councillor for Orakei Cameron Brewer.

“I’ve been around politics for 20 years and have written hundreds of media statements but have never seen anything like it. When I first saw his statement titled ‘Join us to show solidarity with Paris’, I thought the Mayor was inviting Aucklanders to sign a condolence book or attend a candlelit vigil but sadly not. His statement was instead all about trying to shore up some political support for his attendance to an unrelated climate change conference in Paris which he’s under increasing public and media pressure to drop.”

“At best this is extremely bad taste and at worst it is completely offense to people of France let alone the intelligence of Aucklanders.

“Why is he dragging in this terrible series of events to help justify his determination to go on some unrelated climate change junket? It’s pathetic. The only connection is it is in the same city. To try and draw some kind of link is inexcusable. Going on this junket in the first place is poor political judgement. Now dragging in the tragedies of Paris to try and shore up some political support for the trip is beyond words.

“This all shows just how much disarray, dysfunction and desperation the Auckland Mayoral Office is in. A clear majority of councillors don’t want him to go to Paris, and now his latest monumental misjudgement will only feed further political and public discontent.

“I call on the Mayor to contact the office of the Ambassador or Consul General of France and offer an immediate apology and retraction. He also needs to cancel the trip for he and other council representatives immediately as its inappropriate, not required, and will cost ratepayers their hard earned money,” says Cameron Brewer.

Ends

NBR – Tuesday, 17 November 2015:

Likely mayoral candidate Phil Goff has been blasted for his views over possible Auckland city asset sales.

Councillor Cameron Brewer says Mr Goff, Labour’s Auckland affairs spokesman, only delivered criticism and complete dismissiveness over the council reviewing its assets and potential asset sales in commenting on the issue late last week.

“To make matters worse, he admitted he has not even read the reports prepared for the council and to be debated on Thursday.”

The council has received two reports from Cameron Partners and EY over alternative sources of finance and among the recommendations are a full or partial sell-down of its Auckland International Airport shares, Ports of Auckland, its diversified financial asset portfolio and Auckland Energy Consumer Trust.

There are also suggestions to sell some of the council’s 13 golf courses to free up land for housing and using self-funding PPPs, tax increment financing, selling naming rights for stadiums and the old chestnuts of motorway tolls and a regional fuel tax, which the government has in the past dismissed.

The reports will be debated at the council’s finance and performance committee. In the past mayor Len Brown and other councillors have been resolute in resisting calls for asset sales. Mr Brown says it will never happen as long as he is in office.

“Mr Goff is simply wheeling out Labour’s failed political position again and in doing so openly admitted he hadn’t even read the reports,” Mr Brewer says.

“His instant ‘no’ to Auckland Council’s review of its asset holdings shows he is not thinking of what will be best for the city and what is in the best interests of the region’s long-term financial future.

“That attitude will alarm many in the business community who were hoping for a more open-minded Mr Goff.”

He says local government is about taking a breath, reading the reports and potentially adopting a pragmatic approach to policy.  “Not even I have articulated a position on all of this and I am supposedly wedded to the centre right.

“Let’s absorb the reports and let’s have the debate first.”

By Nick Grant – NBR – 13 November 2015:

… One councillor who is demonstrably less enthused about the concept is Cameron Brewer.

He calls yesterday’s decision “an entirely appropriate outcome” due to the proposal having been “an ill conceived fantasy” from the get-go,

“I always saw the precinct being located in the middle of Hobsonville as completely incongruous to that environment,” he says, noting that in July Auckland Council Property had made it clear Auckland Council would be worse off by $24 million in a cash position under the proposal.

“So, financially, it made no sense at all.”

And that’s leaving aside the primary reason against it, that the precinct would limit the number of houses that could be built in the area, he says.

Mr Brewer remains concerned about what he describes as ATEED’s “Think Big film proposition.”

“The worry is now, they’re not giving up, they’re desperate to get out of the Henderson film studio site, so they’re going to be racing around during the next quarter to find another site, possibly in the north-west of Auckland,” he says.

“I’m still unconvinced that Auckland Council getting itself knee deep in the very unpredictable and seasonal nature of film studios is a viable long-term risk that Auckland ratepayers should take.”

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/hobsonville-proposal-dead-auckland-screen-hub-concept-lives-ng-p-181576

By Maria Slade – Fairfax/stuff.co.nz – 9 November 2015:

Long-time Auckland mayor Len Brown has announced he is bowing out next year, admitting his extramarital affair with a council adviser has cast too long a shadow over his 2016 election chances.

But there has been far more to his three terms as mayor – once of Manukau City and then twice of the merged Auckland Super City – than salacious revelations about his sex life.

We look at the some of the highlights and lowlights of the Brown administration.

HIGHLIGHTS

LEN THE CHEERLEADER

It’s no coincidence that media archives contain far more pictures than is necessary of Len Brown giving the thumbs up. The cheesy pose sums up the ebullient mayor perfectly.

He has been an untiring, glass-half-full advocate for Auckland.

“He was an extraordinarily talented enthusiast in terms of the civic role,” Councillor Chris Fletcher said.

“The ribbon cuttings, the talking up of issues, he has a very nice manner… He’s gifted in that regard.”

LEN THE PEACEMAKER

The first mayor of the merged Super City was always going to cop the fallout from trying to bring eight warring councils under one umbrella.

But Brown more or less managed it, his political colleagues say.

“I think he did really well to bring everyone together into one municipal authority and part of that was his lively, upbeat persona where he was able to gently prod people into heading in the right direction,” Councillor Cameron Brewer said.

Fletcher said she’s had her political and philosophical differences with the mayor, “but it has never interfered with the ability for us to come together and debate and discuss and move issues on”.

Remarkably he never held grudges, she said.

IMPROVED PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Under Len Brown’s watch patronage of Auckland public transport patronage has shot through the roof, particularly on rail which is up around 43 per cent.

This has been helped by the introduction of the electric trains, providing a more efficient and pleasant service.

Brewer believes Brown was at the peak of his powers in mid- 2013 when the Prime Minister announced an accelerated package fast-tracking some of Auckland’s major transport projects.

Since then the council has signed the Transport Alignment Project, a kind of memorandum of understanding with central government on Auckland’s transport needs over the next 30 years.

“That has been an enormous coup,” Fletcher said.

The government wouldn’t have taken Auckland seriously if it hadn’t pushed through improvements such as the single ticket HOP card system.

LOWLIGHTS:

THE MOMENTS OF WEAKNESS

It’s hard to go past Brown’s two-year affair with council advisory board member Bevan Chuang as the most embarrassing event of his mayoralty.

Regardless of the moral rights and wrongs and whether it had any effect on his ability to run a city, he was never able to shake off the stigma of the affair.

But it was not the only time we saw Brown the man.

In 2010 he cried and slapped his face in a Manukau City Council meeting as he apologised for putting personal items including a Christmas ham on his mayoral credit card.

At the height of the port expansion row earlier this year he walked out of a council meeting after blocking further debate on the matter.

Brown and Chuang were allegedly intimate in the Ngati Whatua Room at Auckland’s Town Hall. Photo: David White / Fairfax NZ

COUNCIL SPENDING

While Brown has been focused on developing a united Auckland community, many say the Super City has failed to deliver on promised economies of scale.

Auckland Council has around 200 more staff than it did last year, spending an extra $63m in staff costs.

Council officials say it’s due to the city’s rapid growth, with more resources needed to do things such as process building consents and provide infrastructure.

Meanwhile rates have gone up by an average 10 per cent this year, including a new transport levy.

But Brewer believes it’s Brown’s greatest failure.

“At the end of the day we’re rating, spending and borrowing more than ever before.”

THE POWER OF THE CCOS

Many believe the Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) such as Auckland Transport and Auckland Council Investments wield too much power.

They may have been created by the laws setting up the new Auckland Council, but there is a view that the political wing hasn’t governed them as strongly and tightly as it should have.

This was seen in the furore over Ports of Auckland’s proposed container wharf extensions.

The Auckland Council Investments-owned port quietly applied for a series of resource consents and didn’t bother to tell the mayor about a project it surely knew would be controversial.

“With mayoral leadership it’s not so much what you’re statutorily able to influence, it’s that behind the scenes leadership and having meaningful input and control,” he said.

THE MASSIVE PROPOSED AUCKLAND UNITARY PLAN

The huge task of setting the blueprint for Auckland’s growth going forward is well underway and hearings on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP) have been going on for months.

It involves looking at contentious issues such as protecting view shafts, whether to lift the pre-1944 heritage overlay guarding many of the inner suburbs, and plans to allow greater housing density.

Fletcher has criticised Brown for being too detached from the process and delegating responsibility to Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse.

One of the mayor’s favourite sayings is “pace and momentum”, but the PAUP is trying to do too much too quickly, Fletcher believes.

“Slowly and surely can also sometimes play a part.

“He could have staged the Unitary Plan and rolled it out to enable us to have had a less rocky road.”

 – Stuff.co.nz

NBR – By Sally Lindsay – Friday, 30 October 2015:

Auckland Council spent $749,000 on merging Waterfront Auckland and Auckland Council property into Panuku Development Auckland – the city’s development agency.

More than $632,000 of the money was paid to consultants, while $46,000 was spent on appointing board members, management and staff and more than $70,500 went on a council controlled organisations review and preliminary work on Panuku Development Auckland’s feasibility.

The figures were released to councillor Cameron Brewer under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. Mr Brewer says the project was internally driven and led by a capable and dedicated team of council staff, so it was surprising to see more than $632,000 was spent on external consultants for what many in the corporate world would effectively view as just another departmental merger.

“We have intellectual and project capacity within the CCO governance and external partnership team of senior council staff. They were steered by management and elected representatives and the council even formally consulted the public through the draft long term plan on this very matter.”

“Obviously that was still not enough and the council insisted on external consultants’ views as well — something it does readily and too often,” Mr Brewer says.”

He says the Panuku name was added at the very last minute without any consultation with councillors despite the council’s supposed “no surprises” policywith CCOs.

“The retort we got at the time was that it came at no extra cost. What they didn’t quite tell us was that just setting up the new CCO cost ratepayers three quarters of a million dollars, with most of that blown on external consultants dreaming up reviews and reports.”

The council says mana whenua came up with the proposed Maori names for Development Auckland and these were considered at the regular monthly hui in August. There was no additional cost for these discussions as there was no cost to develop the Panuku logo and only minimal costs to change some sig- nage and corporate stationery.

In its official response to Mr Brewer’s request for the merger costs, the council says the new CCO brings a more collaborate approach to addressing regional growth and the organisation’s ability to use council-owned landholdings means it can assemble and shape larger-scale and more integrated development opportunities.

It says the “bringing together of the two organisations has brought about significant saving,” although it did not outline what the savings were.

“In addition, the merger is also expected to offer more effective and efficient use of council resources throughout the life of the 2015-2025 long-term plan and the cost of establishing Panuku has been met within the envelope of the plan.”

Mr Brewer says most fair-minded people will think spending so much on external consultants for the internal reshuffle and refocus is over the top, particularly given how angry Auckland ratepayers are about council costs.

The council says there are legitimate start-up costs for any new organisation and there would have been expected start-up costs when Auckland Council’s governing body voted to create the new CCO.

Mr Brewer says, putting aside the costs, the “real worry now with Panuku Development Auckland is mission creep. We consulted and promised ratepayers just a few months ago that this new agency would be primarily focused on surplus council land but already it is talking about buying privately- owned land and getting ratepayers knee deep in property development.”

Ends