Councillors complain over stadium report
AUCKLAND: Auckland councillors can now view an unredacted $1 million prefeasibility report on a potential $1.5 billion downtown stadium.
It came after pressure on Auckland Mayor Phil Goff by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Access to the report is conditional on certain rules and the council has warned councillors it could take the same approach for redacting commercially sensitive information in the future.
In response to the conditional offer, councillors John Watson, Cathy Casey and Efeso Collins said they would not view the unredacted report and would be complaining to the Ombudsman today.
The council commissioned PWC to draft a prefeasibility report on a downtown Auckland stadium. It found a stadium with a capacity of up to 65,000 could be built on a CBD site for up to $1.5 billion.
In May, a heavily redacted version of a PWC report was provided to Auckland councillors.
The unredacted version was only able to be viewed under the watch of mayoral staff and notes were not allowed to be taken.
Since then Cr Watson, Cr Casey and Cr Collins had complained to the Ombudsman, prompting the council to loosen restrictions on the unredacted report.
Information provided to the Herald by a confidential source revealed that the council has now made the report available to councillors unredacted with three rules: ‘‘The reports may not be copied,’’ a council email states. ‘‘They must be kept in a secure location. After reading them you are asked to return both copies to me (on the basis that if you subsequently need them, you may request access again).’’
The council email went on to say there may be instances in the future where only one copy would be available for councillors to view and not take away.
Cr Watson told the Herald Mr Goff was assuming the role of elected representative and chief executive in limiting councillors easily accessing something of interest to the public.
Councillors Cathy Casey and Efeso Collins made complaints to the Ombudsman about the mayor’s behaviour.
Cr Collins said he was totally dismayed by the ‘‘heavyhanded behaviour’’. — NZME