Media Release
28 November 2010
Jami-Lee Ross
Auckland Councillor
Secretive CCO Board Appointments Not On
An Auckland Councillor is hitting out at plans to appoint directors of Auckland Council Controlled Organisations in
secret later this week.
On Thursday the Auckland Council CCO Strategy and Appointments Subcommittee will be considering appointments to seven
Council Controlled Organisations (CCO). The proposed appointments have been placed on a part of the agenda which is
publicly excluded.
Auckland Councillor Jami-Lee Ross says it’s not on for the Subcommittee to be considering CCO board appointments in
secret. “The Auckland Council needs to be as transparent as possible. We should not be making decisions about appointing
directors to CCO boards at a meeting with the public excluded.
“The unelected directors of CCOs control significant assets and operations on behalf of Aucklanders. It is important
that they are appointed openly and publicly.”
Mr Ross, who is a member of the CCO Strategy and Appointments Subcommittee, says he plans on asking the Subcommittee to
hold the meeting openly. The Subcommittee, chaired by Mayor Len Brown, makes the final decision about whether to exclude
the public from its meeting.
“Mayor Len Brown was right when he said recently, in relation to CCOs holding open board meetings, ‘the public of
Auckland expect their CCOs to be as open as possible’.
“The public of Auckland also expect their Mayor and councillors to be as open as possible. If it’s good enough for us to
expect the CCO boards to hold their meetings in public, then it should be good enough for us to do the same.”
Mr Ross says he is restricted by Council standing orders from commenting on individual appointments at this stage
because the meeting agenda has been marked confidential.
However he says he has significant concerns about the appointment process and a number of the proposed directors that he
will be airing at the meeting.
“The process for appointing directors to CCO boards needs to be thorough and transparent. Directors must be appointed
solely on merit. Long-standing friendships and political campaign connections should not be the prime reasons for making
appointments.”
ENDS