George Wood

It looks like Lyin’ Len Brown’s sneaky tactics have finally caught up with him.

As I have previously revealed, Len is up to his sneaky tricks again and is trying to avoid the full weight of transparency for his flagship Auckland Unitary Plan.

It was good to see Amy Adams took my advice and told Len to pull his head in.

Len Brown approached the Government desperate for a secret process for the development of the Unitary Plan. The Government told him to bugger off and instead come up with its own plan.

Len also demanded that the Unitary Plan was granted immediate legal effect so he could do whatever he liked and strip Aucklanders off all their rights.

Again, the Government told him to piss off.

The reason the Government rejected Lyin’ Len’s request for immediate legal effect was because it was already provided for under the RMA. That means if Lyin’ Len is so keen to block public feedback he can go to the Environment Court and request this course of action.

But he won’t because he knows he’ll be laughed out the door all the way back to his high rise apartment….except Len likes to live on a lifestyle block and force other Aucklanders to live in high rises.

Lyin’ Len has staked his reputation on the Unitary Plan, but now according to the Herald, his councillors are revolting against him.  Read more »

In around 7 months, NZ will be in the thick of local body elections, the most important for the Auckland Council.

At this stage, there isn’t a declared centre-right candidate to take on Len Brown, though the rumour mill is running overtime on a couple of names.

However, Len for know is very much in the box seat, which is why Auckland needs a strong centre-right council to hold him to account.

The centre-right in Auckland Region is normally represented by the Citizens and Ratepayers ticket, who have historically done well on the former Auckland Regional Council and the old Auckland City Council.

Since the 2010 elections, when C&R did poorly in the first ever supercity elections, there has been a rebrand by C&R’s executive board and National Party hacks Alastair Bell and Mark Thomas, to try and refresh their image. But while the colours and names have changed, their political fortunes have not.  The new C&R, now known as Communities and Residents, has barely registered in the media over the last year. The C&R caucus is badly divided, and their board ineffective. Wags have said they should have renamed themselves Catastrophe & Ruin instead.

National has all but washed their hands of C&R in the elections this year, its caucus refusing to make available any organisation to the adrift group, instead encouraging individuals to participate if they feel like it. Candidate selections that were supposed to take place in November have been deferred and deferred as people go cold on standing for an organisation heading for defeat. Big fundraising plans have turned to dust and instead, a big levy is likely to be imposed on the hapless cannon fodder that stand.  Read more »

I know it is hard to come by these days with Len Brown raiding our wallets with never ending rates increases, blowing millions of silly bridges and a stupid rail loop, but there is some good news:

A tactical blunder by Mayor Len Brown has stopped the Maori Statutory Board from having a say on next year’s budget.

Councillors voted 11-10 yesterday for the budget to be discussed by the full council and not at the strategy and finance committee. Two board members, chairman David Taipari and John Tamihere, sit on the strategy and finance committee with full voting rights, but the board is not represented on the full council.

Councillor Christine Fletcher wanted the budget discussed by the full council with support from councillor George Wood, who expressed concern about involvement of unelected Maori.

Instead of taking his motion to refer the draft budget to the strategy and finance committee, Mr Brown invited Ms Fletcher to put an amendment to send it to the full council, confidently predicting it would be lost and the main motion would pass. Mr Brown declared the amendment was lost on a vote of voices, but when a division was called the vote was carried 11-10.

After the lunch break, Mr Brown tried to reverse the decision with an impassioned speech about the damage to the council’s relationship with the Maori Statutory Board, but failed to get the 75 per cent support required to do so. The vote was 13-6.

Mr Taipari said Super City legislation allowed the board to participate in the budget. The matter would be discussed at its meeting on November 5.

ᔥ NZ Herald

The results are fairly comprehensive from the online survey at The NZ Herald.

Fully 53% are against the race at Pukekohe at all wither thinking it is a complete waste of ratepayer cash (49%) or not happy at all about it being at Pukekohe (4%).

A further 24% aren’t interested in a car race anyway, bringing the total either opposed or dis-interested to 77%

Meanwhile just 11% are enthusiastic.

Perhaps Len’s lackeys should take a bit of notice. I think it is high time we started to campaign against profligate councillors and put them on a list to rinse them in the next local body elections.

Only George Wood, Sharon Stewart, Cathy Casey, Sandra Coney and Cameron Brewer can hold their heads high over this.

I t may have been interesting to have the vote when the full council was in attendance. Len Brown, Arthur Anae, John Walker, Mike Lee, Richard Northey, Dick Quax, Calum Penrose, Wayne Walker and IMSB member John Tamihere were all absent.

I doubt Calum Penrose would have voted for this waste, nor Dick Quax.

C&R should really look now to de-select Chris Fletcher and Noelene Raffills. While they are at it they should axe the current leadership of C&R who put in place the removal of caucus whipping that allowed these two to go against the principles of C&R. Noelene Raffills has become Len Brown’s conservative poodle so desperate she is to retain her committee chair job.

People seem focussed on standing someone against Len Brown for Mayor. They should not, what they need to do is focus on a credible, cross spectrum “Auckland First” ticket focused on representing ratepayers and fiscal conservatism and clean out the council leaving Len Brown as but one vote on a council stacked against him.

I for one would be interested in establish such a ticket and campaign. C&R have lost their way, they should be retired, same goes for Labour and City Vision…time is up on petty party politics in Auckland. Time for a new way.

Andrew Little says his little outburst on George Wood’s Facebook at nearly midnight was “satirical humour”, the Herald repeats the story this morning:

Former Labour president Andrew Little is not resiling from his “humorous, satirical” suggestion that Auckland councillor George Wood would like to end the Occupy protest in Aotea Square by gunning protesters down.

Mr Little, who is standing in New Plymouth this election, made the comments on Mr Wood’s Facebook page yesterday in response to a post from the former policeman and former Mayor of North Shore.

No. Not from a would be politician. Just apologise Andrew and say you shouldn’t have posted it. Note the comment was posted on Tuesday at 23:24 – Bad time of day when the brain is not thinking clearly.

I doubt Little was being satirical or humourous, everyone knows Labour politicians are humourless pricks.

Len Brown is the Secret Mayor. He didn’t want anyone to know who he had dinner with and fought for 8 months all the way to the Ombudsman. He lost that fight. He wanted board appointments held in secret so he could put his mates on the board unchallenged. And now he has fought an attempt to have the business of the Maori Statutory Authority conducted with openness and transparency.

Secrecy surrounds a new funding plan for the Maori Statutory Board after Mayor Len Brown yesterday crushed a move by many councillors for an open debate on the issue.

Mr Brown, who campaigned last year on openness and transparency, did not want councillors speaking publicly about one of the biggest embarrassments of his six months in the Super City hot seat.

He gathered 11 votes, just enough to stop nine councillors who wanted to debate the council’s new negotiating position with the board in public.

Said councillor Cathy Casey: “It is time to speak out, say what you think and own your words.”

9 Councillors voted for openness. They were Cameron Brewer, Cathy Casey, Christine Fletcher, Mike Lee, Callum Penrose, Sharon Stewart, Des Morrison, John Walker and George Wood. They can hold their heads high.

The other 11 – Len Brown, Wayne Walker, Michael Goudie, Arthur Anae, Alf Filipaina, Richard Northey, Anne Hartley, Penny Webster, Sandra Coney, Penny Hulse, and Noelene Raffils need to be drummed out of the council for letting down their people.

Len Brown sat on a train and campaigned for openness and transparency. He promised “open books”. He has lied to Aucklanders. This discussion is about the budget of the Maori Statutory Board, if that isn’t part of the books then what on earth is?

Aucklanders know now that Len Brown prefers the shadows, back-room deals and weasel words. He has the spine of a jellyfish and the gumption of a fart. It is unacceptable that discussions about spending ratepayers money are held in secret.

We deserve better.

In a surprise move, it was announced today that outspoken former North Shore City mayor Andrew Williams has been appointed as a public spokesman for the AA.

“For some time now, many people have encouraged me to join the AA, particularly after the rigors of three years as Mayor and the experiences I had over that time. My wife and family have been especially pleased at this move.”

“I have spent many a late night contemplating whether I should join the AA or an organization just like it. In the end, I decided that life is too short, and I needed to do this. My life experiences and the public interaction I had as a community board member, a councillor and as Mayor of a major city make me one of the best candidates in New Zealand to be an advocate for the AA”, said Mr Williams.

Paul Thutherwarn, general manager of the Automobile Association, congratulated Mr Williams into his new role. “We have been convinced for some time now that Andrew Williams needed to be a part of the AA. We would have been concerned if he didn’t join us!”

Former political colleagues Len Brown, John Banks, George Wood, Bob Harvey, Chris Darby, John Key and Wayne Mapp all warmly welcomed the announcement. “This was long overdue”, said former Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey.

Williams new role was agreed to as of 2:43am on April 1st.

Len Brown tried to ram his secret deal with Maori to fill the coffers of the Maori-tocracy through the finance committee, but alert councillors and concerned citizens rebelled. He has now had to flip-flop.

Auckland’s mayor has said the council will reconsider the controversial multi-million dollar budget for the unelected Maori Statutory Board next week, saying he believes there is considerable room for savings.

Len Brown this afternoon announced the governing board of the Auckland Council will reconsider the budget when it meets on Monday after criticism of the budget-blowout, including from councillors George Wood and Cameron Brewer.

Christine Fletcher arranged a protest letter which 10 councillors have now signed, including staunch Len Brown supporter John Walker. This is a bitter blow for Len Brown who has had to buckle under pressure from all across the city.

As is usual for pinkos when caught out he has blamed the staff.

Brown said advice was given to the committee on Tuesday that it had delegation to approve the draft budget when it met.

”It is now clear that that is not the case and as a result, the governing body has the opportunity to consider the issue.”

Brown said he has directed council staff to consider ways that the work of the board and the wider Auckland Council can be better aligned.

Councillors will need to be vigilant with the night-mayor, lest he tries more shifty stuff.

Letter to Len Brown from 10 councillors

The day that Len Brown hiked rates by more than three times current inflation, breaking his election promise several councillors were absent from the critical vote. Cr. Cameron Brewer tells us who voted which way.

As you can see with the vote 8-10 including the Night-Mayor’s own vote this was a close run thing. Word has it that Len Brown was literally begging everyone to unite behind his rates hike.

Now if Penny Webster had stuck to her political roots and Michael Goudie had bothered to turn up then Len’s rate rise would have been defeated.

Michael Goudie also tweeted what he thinks about finance matters, in response to George Wood’s suggestion for a line by line examination of the books. Michael Goudie thinks fiscal prudence it is a “waste of time”. Well I have news for Michael Goudie, I think he is a waste of time and I will spend the next three years making sure the residents of Albany know that he thinks skateboarding and “Epic” community forums are more important than rates. I think he will quickly find out that rate-payers think rather a lot more about rates than he does.

January 1, 1970 12:00 pm viaReplyRetweetFavorite

@

Poor old George Wood is “deflated” at his crap job handed out by Railway Len.

The Super City is only 10 days old, but councillor George Wood has spat the dummy about the relatively minor job given to him by Mayor Len Brown.

The former North Shore Mayor and senior policeman said he was “somewhat deflated” to be told by Mr Brown he would chair the community safety forum when he wanted a public transport role.

He wondered if he was being sidelined for going public on the “crummy levels of public transport” in Otara – launching pad for the political career of Mr Brown. the the former Manukau Mayor.

In February, Mr Wood compared the Otara bus station with a prison exercise yard and hoped it was not the standard of community facility that Mr Brown intended for the rest of Auckland.

“It worries me what could happen if the Manukau standards of mediocrity were replicated across the rest of the region,” Mr Wood said.

Harden up George, it could be worse, you could be on permanent gardening leave, issuing press releases and Facebooking at ll hours of the night and still calling yourself Mayor despite the election being over for more than a month. Now that would be deflating.

I just bet he is changing his name by deed poll to Mayor Andrew Williams. it remind me though, I wonder if the mayor car , robes and chains have been handed back yet?

Mayor Andrew Williams? - still mayor more than a month after the election