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

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