Manukau mayor defends CEO

As Mayor of Manukau, I am appalled that a mayoral candidate and sitting councillor, in the run up to the local government elections in Manukau, has cast very serious but false allegations about our highly regarded Manukau City Council Chief Executive, Leigh Auton.

Mr Quax has accused Mr Auton of becoming involved in the election campaign. Furthermore he has criticised Mr Auton for providing information in a form that could be used in a way that impacts on the election results, and he believes it has been presented in an inaccurate and impartial manner.

I am very disturbed and extremely disappointed that Mr Quax believes the information is misleading in relation to the real staffing structure of the Manukau City Council.

In fact all of the information provided by Mr Auton can be found in council’s Annual Reports, and the 30 June 2007 staffing numbers will be included in the Annual Report for 2007, due out shortly.

In releasing the information, Mr Auton stated in his covering letter that the 04/09/2007 figures, which reflect a significant reduction in staff numbers, are a result of the reshaping of the organisation and particularly reflects moving to new delivery structures.

The figures for 30 June 2007 show full-time equivalent staff numbers at 1075 ( a growth of 2.38 per cent over the same period in 2006). However as a result of the restructuring of the organisation which has recently concluded with the creation of two further corporate entities – Manukau Leisure Services Limited and Manukau Building Consultants Limited – the staff for Manukau City Council has been reduced to 828 full-time equivalent staff positions, which equates to a reduction of 22.98 per cent.

These 828 staff positions are now the sole responsibility of the Chief Executive of Manukau City Council. The corporate entities now have their own Boards and Chairman, and each has an executive officer who is responsible for those staff formerly with Manukau City Council.

I am very proud of the outstanding leadership provided by Mr Auton in achieving this contemporary management structure which, with the fullness of time, may well be emulated by other local government in New Zealand.

The Manukau City Council, including Cr Quax, provided united support to our efforts to achieve a structure capable of maintaining the momentum of Manukau city into the future.

It is also important to note that Mr Auton conducted widespread consultation with the staff in 2006 during the reshaping of the organisation’s structure.

These kinds of cheap political shots aimed at an outstanding Chief Executive at election time, do nothing to enhance the status of Cr Quax but have the potential to seriously undermine the stability of excellent staff employed by the council.

I am extremely disappointed that Mr Quax has resorted to this type of tactic, and my advice to him is to fight this election on his own merits and on the social, economic and environmental policies which the public can consider and vote on.