Media release
Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer
Friday, 28 October 2011

Unfortunately Michael Redman resignation had to happen

“ATEED CEO Michael Redman’s resignation is a big loss of talent but he had no option given the contents of the 56-page Audit New Zealand report which took nine months to research and write,” says Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer.

“Let’s not forget that Auckland Council will probably soon carry out considerable due diligence and cost/benefit analysis around whether Whenuapai Air Base should host the V8s from 2013. It would have been very difficult to uphold public confidence in that process if Michael Redman was leading the charge as CEO of ATEED.

“Given Hamilton burnt its fingers, that process needs to be completely impartial and of course independent of Hamilton and its past relationships with the promoter. What’s more ratepayers need to have absolute confidence in ATEED’s leadership going forward given the hundreds of millions spent each year including $18m on the city’s events strategy from 2012/13. Mr Redman’s resignation is very disappointing but necessary to secure the public’s confidence in this massive CCO.

“There are some very big lessons for all councils to take heed. The Audit New Zealand report makes it clear that Hamilton City Councillors were often left in the dark, that the city should never have carried out $18m of track infrastructure upgrades before the V8 contract was even signed, that the massive budget blow outs were buried, that there was a serious breach of delegated authority on expenditure, and that were too many secret meetings going on.

“The report indicates that Mr Redman was a passionate political advocate for the V8s when he was elected Mayor of Hamilton in 2004. Unfortunately he seemingly carried on that advocacy when he became CEO of Hamilton City Council in 2007. He arguably struggled to take his cheerleader hat off and become an impartial city administrator. Sadly there are no winners out of all this. It’s all very unfortunate,” says Cameron Brewer.
Ends

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