Len Brown

ᔥ NZ Herald

[I]n a statement today, Len Brown reaffirmed that Auckland would not be selling off its strategic assets – the port and its airport shares.

“One of the biggest pressures we face is the costs around the amalgamation of Auckland Council, and that is a cost imposed on Auckland by the Government.

“Our core strategic assets will not be sold. Generations of Aucklanders have invested in them and they want them retained in public ownership. They bring in tens of millions of dollars a year, taking pressure off rates. Past assets sales have delivered very poor results. We do not intend going down that path,” he said.

But Auckland Council was considering the sale of non-strategic assets such as property, which could provide as much as $400 million dollars in revenue for ratepayers, he said.

The mayors press release is a load of rubbish.

Generations of Aucklanders have not invested in the Airport.  One generation of ratepayers as I understand it guaranteed any losses when the airport shifted from Whenuapai to Mangere.  I do not believe actual cash was invested but it was to create a benefit for Auckland.  Having created the benefit why do we not move on and use the Airport funds to create other benefits.  No problem selling one lot of family silver if you buy some other family silver.

We have the benefit of the Airport for growth etc whether the ratepayers own it or not.

Some one should ask Len Brown to specify exactly which generations have invested in the Airport and the Port.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

Nelson held a referendum on Maori wards for their council. The public voted it down.

A Maori ward for Nelson city has been soundly rejected by voters.

With just 15, 387 votes received by the cutoff at midday today – a 43.4 percent return – there were 12,298 votes against the proposal and 3131 for it.

In percentage terms, 79.41 per cent of the votes counted were against the proposal and 20.22 for.

Len Brown promised he would hold a referendum on Maori wards during his campaign. He should set up a referendum for the 2013 local body elections so we can all have our say on Maori wards.

ᔥ the tipline

The woman applying for a job in a lemon orchard in Keri Keri seemed to be far too qualified for the job; given her arts and education degrees from Auckland University and her jobs as a social worker and school teacher.

The foreman frowned and said,

“I have to ask you this: Have you had any actual experience in picking lemons?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I have!” she replied.

“I’ve been divorced three times, owned two Lada’s, supported the Warriors, the Blues and the Black Caps and I voted for Len Brown.”

ᔥ NZ Herald

In todays Herald they rate the council. They rate Len Brown a C.

Len Brown – C
Main responsibility – Mayor
The first 12 months of Brown’s mayoralty were a commendable success. The past six months have been a shocker. Brown set out as the first Mayor of the Super City with panache and drive; setting out a vision to make Auckland the “world’s most liveable city”.

The rot began to set in when Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully announced the Government was taking control of the waterfront after the cup’s opening night debacle

Since then, Brown has struggled to impose a sense of leadership and authority during the most bitter industrial dispute on the (council-owned) wharves since 1951 and finds himself supporting a pokies for convention centre deal. He keeps saying intervention would undermine due process, but that did not stop him ignoring the normal processes and unilaterally announcing a $27 million cruise ship terminal. Brown has infuriated his traditional supporters on the left, who accuse him of “sitting on the fence” and being “weak”. For undoing much of the good work in his first 12 months, Brown gets a C for his mid-term report mark.

Maybe they don’t remember the 100 day balls up where washing the council windows was one of his achievements. Or maybe they don’t remember Len taking a train to work only to be picked up by his mayoral limo that arrived at Britomart about the same time. Or that even Brian Rudman and Bernard Orsman were having a go at him for being hopeless.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Len Brown is doing a bang up job. In just two short years he has managed to get two thirds of the population opposed to his rate increases:

Aucklanders are not impressed by Mayor Len Brown’s plans to increase rates by nearly 5 per cent a year over the next decade, nor do they want him to extend the Manukau policy of free swimming pools in Manukau to the rest of the Super City.

Mr Brown’s first 10-year budget has drawn 9921 submissions – 4524 from dog owners outraged over planned fee increases for pets, which Mr Brown and councillors are backing away from.

Dogs aside, Aucklanders are most concerned about transport and rating issues, according to a council analysis of public submissions.

“We have serious concerns about a doubling of rates revenue from $1.1 billion to $2.2 billion over the next decade,” Heart of the City spokesman Greg McKeown told councillors on Friday.

“It’s getting too easy to say $1 billion in this city.”

I wonder when we will ever see a local body politician that will promise rate decreases ans spending cuts?

It might be worth pointing out that Len Brown’s donations regime was laundered through a trust , given two levels of anonymity’ certainly not in keeping with the spirit of the law.

This is why donors like Stevensons and Noel Robinson gave happily to Brown’s campaign, because they gave to a trust that then made one lump sum donation of $499k to browns campaign.

I know of two donors who gave to Len Brown, and subsequently received jobs in the appointments process.

While it doesn’t look tidy from John Banks, and why would it be tidy, Michelle Boag was his campaign fundraiser, so no surprises there where Mallard is getting all his dirt.

I suspect though that John Banks will join the long list of people who regret ever involving Michelle Boag in their affairs.

The Herald ran today an article about Mallard lodging a complaint with the Auckland Electoral Officer about the $15,000 donation by Sky City to John Banks’ mayoral campaign. I have been mulling it over and something just doesn’t seem right here.

You see, in my investigations into James Bews-Hair and Conor Roberts I’ve found some interesting dots that need to be joined.

There are some interesting Labour Party dynamics at play. It is clearer by the day that the Auckland wing of the Party are done with all the beltway politics that is being played by Shearer and his team (of almost resigned staffers).

We all know that in Auckland there is one person who knows more about the Auckland Mayoral campaign than anyone.

We also know that there’s another person rather close to the current Mayor who wrote Sky City’s donation policy (refer to previous post about chequebook lobbying)

It does raise questions why the two gentlemen above would feed the information about the dual Sky City donations (ie: one to Brown, one to Banks) to the serially disloyal Mallard and not to their own man Shearer (has everyone forgotten that Roberts ran Shearer’s campaign for the by-election while Bews-Hair worked with and was Shearer’s boss in Goff’s ministerial office).

Clearly from Auckland they can sense the tide going out on Shearer’s leadership. They’ve given up on their own man, their own mate, the guy they helped install.

The real question is why are they feeding Mallard? Roberts is determined to complete the hatchet job he’s done on Banks’ political career. Bews-Hair is always a more difficult one to work out. May be he has got bored or may be he is backing the other team and wants his old mate (and former employee) Goldsmith to be MP of
Epsom?

As for the complaint. It will come down to what Sky City says they told Banks (about the donation).

Hmmm… and will Banks vote against the Sky City pokies/centre deal? Bloody unlikely.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Trevor Mallard is at it again, hurling around spurious allegations in a bid to cover up for Labour’s nasty little civil war which he is donkey deep involved in:

Labour MP Trevor Mallard has lodged an official complaint about Act leader John Banks failing to disclose a $15,000 donation was from SkyCity during his 2010 Auckland mayoralty campaign.

Mr Mallard lodged the complaint with the Auckland Council electoral officer this week. He also asked the electoral officer to scrutinise “anonymous” donations of radio advertising Mr Banks had included in his return.

SkyCity gave $15,000 each to Len Brown, now mayor, and Mr Banks, his rival, during that campaign.

Although Mr Brown’s donation return listed SkyCity as a donor, Mr Banks’ listed an anonymous donation of $15,000. It did not mention SkyCity.

It seems that David Shearer’s rulings about no gotcha politics don;t apply to Trevor Mallard, but then again Trevor is the one really in charge of the party, pulling the strings from the back rooms.

NBR Online

Len Brown has backed the SkyCity deal which will deliver a Convention Centre to Auckland at no cost to the ratepayers or taxpayers.

Auckland mayor Len Brown supports the convention centre at the heart of a contentious deal between the National Party and SkyCity Entertainment Group – a facility the council’s own research shows would be “break-even” at best.

Under the SkyCity proposal, the casino and hotel operator would pay the full $350 million construction costs for a centre capable of holding 3500 seated delegates or 4500 in an exhibition format.

The payback for SkyCity would be changes to gambling regulations that would allow it to install more gaming machines.

Brokerage Goldman Sachs last month estimated SkyCity would need 350 to 500 extra machines to profit from the deal, generating as much as $46m of revenue in the first full year of operation.

Labour is clearly opposed to any deal where private enterprise picks up the tag, oppsed to any deal that provides 1000 construction jobs and opposed to 350 permanent jobs.

Before we listen to what Labour has to say about this deal let them firstly pay back the dirty money they got in donations, then let them explain how they would fund  a $350 million Convention Centre.

ᔥ NZ Herald

It seems that Len Brown can add another nickname to his already prodigious list….”Bulldozer Brown“. For once I am actually in support of Brown on this. There is nothing worse than moaning minnies, usually of the left persuasion, complaining about what someone else wants to do with their own land and buildings.

Keep those bulldozers rolling Len.

A higher percentage of applications to bulldoze homes in Auckland City’s character suburbs are being approved under Mayor Len Brown than under his predecessor John Banks, a Herald survey has found.

Since 2007, 73 resource consents have been granted to demolish pre-1940 homes in the Residential 1 and 2 character suburbs. Six were for partial demolition.

Under Mr Brown’s watch, 24 homes have been lost compared with 49 under Mr Banks. But on a percentage basis, Mr Brown’s council is approving 20 per cent more consents.

However, council planning officers are resisting plans by the council’s heritage advisory panel for urgent action to tighten up the rules meant to protect the inner city and established character suburbs.

The 16-member heritage panel is worried that the community is having no say on applications to demolish homes. The Herald survey shows only two of the 73 applications were publicly notified and five had limited notification.