Press Release

ISSUED BY AFFORDABLE AUCKLAND

Berry Receives Bill for Leather Satchels

Affordable Auckland’s Stephen Berry has received a response to the Official Information Request he made on October 15 regarding the cost of leather satchels issued to elected members of Auckland’s council and local boards. “Each one of these satchels cost $142.10 and 164 of them were issued. This meant they cost the Auckland ratepayer a total of $23,304. What a terrible waste of money.”

Stephen Berry first broke the story about the issuing of the patented leather satchels on October 14th, and advised at the time that he would be conducting an investigation into their cost. It had taken until November 1 to receive that response. In the meantime Waitakere Councillor Linda Cooper attacked the issuing of the bags in her maiden speech at Council on October 30 which was covered by mainstream media radio stations. Berry is philosophical; “The media ignored Affordable Auckland before the election, they’re ignoring us after the election but I’m vowing to spend the next three years investigating all council activities and holding them accountable for instances of irresponsible waste.”

The Council’s Public Information Office has predictably defended the issuing of the satchels on the grounds they are a necessary tool for councillors to do their jobs. The official information request response says, “For each local board or committee meeting there are usually several papers that need to be transported to and from each meeting by the elected representative. Some of these papers can be bulky. For example on the 19 September 2013, the Regional Development and Operations Committee open agenda was 442 pages and weighed 1.2 kg. Depending on the meeting, accompanying papers can collectively weight several kilograms.”

Berry says that such a response simply confirms what he spent the last election campaign saying about Council functions. “Clearly the Council is doing far too much! If they have decided to spend tens of thousands on bags so local board members can carry several kilos of paper at a time, isn’t this symptomatic of an over-active Council rather than a need to issue bags?”

Mr. Berry thinks the best way for elected members to demonstrate their commitment to responsible Council spending would be for recipients of the bag to pay the Council back for it. “Let councillors and local board members have the opportunity to put their money where their mouths are. Who will accept this obscene perk and try to continue quietly? Who will acknowledge the inherent wrong in tens of thousands of dollars of other people’s money being wasted and pay for the bag or give it back?”

Stephen Berry was the Affordable Auckland candidate for Mayor in the 2013 local body elections. He finished in third place with 13650 votes.

Ends

Stephen Berry
Leader, Affordable Auckland

www.affordable.org.nz
www.facebook.com/affordablecity

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