I’ve decided it’s time to get inside ‘the machine’ of Auckland Council at ‘entry level’, Waitematā Local Board.
In reality it’s more like a living organism made up of elected officials (elected every three years) headed by the Mayor and the CEO responsible for staff (maybe they should also be elected every three years).
Council‘s core services are supposed to be maintaining roads and keeping the traffic flowing, and collecting rubbish weekly, by managing your rates sensibly, not frivolous, unnecessary projects by staff making up unnecessary projects to fill their time (busywork) and justify their salaries, nor filling the roads with obstacles, and certainly not fixing what isn’t broken. Only positive change should be occurring.
I started attending WLB meetings and presenting to advocate on matters I was passionate about seven years ago. I know those views were shared by you from talking to friends and strangers. Then three years ago, I started observing and occasionally presenting at Auckland Council Governing Body, Planning and Transport mega-committees, and the AT Board. As a familiar face and often the only one there, Mayor Brown calls me “the audience”. I have gained a deep insight into council machinations, therefore learning the ropes and short cutting the big learning curve required to become an effective board member.
Within the WLB, I will use that knowledge I have gained for better results than has been the case with the current board. Last election I recommended not letting one political party control the board. You listened and voted for a change. Instead of six ‘red team’ and one other, you elected three ‘red team’ and four ‘blue team’. But that’s not what you got. A ‘blue team’ member saw an opportunity to be paid over $100K by defecting and has voted with them and against you for three years. Community advocacy from the ‘outside’ has had wins and losses. Most losses have been from red team ‘woke’ doctrine, not supported by you, and it’s your money that’s been wasted.
My reaction is to offer my service to the community with passion standing for WLB. I have set out my pledges on my billboards, as a measure of my integrity. Constituents should hold elected officials accountable. I will listen to you, voting issue by issue based on merit. That is why I chose to be an independent, operating from my moral compass, not follow party politics.
My campaign for transparency started with a presentation to the first governing body meeting three years ago. It has already brought out-of-control CCOs back under council oversight and helped open once-secret council workshops. The CEO even sent me a text message when this was tabled for a vote. By inviting councillor Ken Turner and members of two other local boards to speak at the WLB, it resulted in their workshops being opened to the public as well.
At that first governing body meeting, I also presented my first design for an extension of car parking from 10 to 50 parks for Meola Road dog walkers. This was totally endorsed by the Mayor, who had costed the project using his civil engineering skills. He sent it to the Auckland Transport Board to be implemented. Instead, AT constructed an additional footpath. Since then AT has commissioned a sculpture in the location of the second design, so I have created a third design.
Mayor Brown is divesting Auckland Transport’s power and control by giving local boards decision-making on their roads. My design background makes me uniquely qualified to ensure better traffic flow solutions starting with removing Auckland Transport’s impeding road obstacles. They are worse than the plague of orange cones and must go.
WLB Chair and City Vision members just voted to extend the cycleway from Surrey Crescent along Old Mill Road to the island that the community occupied in 2018 to stop this craziness with a petition of nearly 3400 signatures, instead of waiting for the incoming board to make this decision,
The latest ‘busy-work’ project by employees with nothing better to do than waste your rates, is pedestrianising High Street, a service lane that needs vehicle access for $27.8m. That follows bollarding off Mercury Lane, voted for by the four controlling the WLB vote, stopping access to the Council carpark building and George Courts’ Building residents’ parking and service vehicles returning south. I asked 128 business owners and managers on K’ Rd and 125 signed a petition to stop it, without needing to be convinced because it was a ‘no-brainer’. It’s what I do best — ask the directly affected people. Listen to the community, talking to strangers. I have been doing this unpaid advocacy because local government politics is the ‘mud on your doorstep’.
I will cut wasteful ‘busywork’ and stop projects that benefit consultants, not communities.
Gael Baldock — passionate, authentic advocate for Auckland. GaelB@xtra.co.nz
Read more in part 2 in October Ponsonby News.
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