Speedy start to review

Work on the independent review into governance issues at Wellington City Council will start immediately, the man at the helm says.

Peter Winder – who Wellington Mayor Andy Foster appointed to conduct the review after conflicts between elected members reached breaking point over the past week – has had a long career in local governance, including overseeing a review into Tauranga City Council last year.

The former chief executive of both Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) and Auckland Regional Council was one of four commissioners appointed to act in place of elected representatives at Kaipara District Council in 2012, when it was facing ‘‘serious governance and financial challenges’’.

Speaking to Stuff yesterday, after Foster announced Winder’s appointment in a media statement released late on Thursday, Winder acknowledged the process had been ‘‘quite quick’’.

‘‘[I] will start work immediately,’’ Winder said. ‘‘Clearly, there is a body of background information that [I] need to digest.’’

Winder, who is based in Auckland, had been provided with terms of reference, which included investigating and reporting on the governance problems the council faced, and the factors contributing to them, and producing an action plan on how the issues can be resolved.

To do this, he would speak with all councillors, the mayor and other stakeholders face-to-face, scrutinise records of council meetings and decision-making, and examine media coverage and social media posts that could provide insight.

The first step would be reading through documents provided to him by the council next week, before flying to Wellington to meet with key people. ‘‘Then we can start to engage with the council about what is next.’’

He did not want to comment further on what the review would involve but said it was likely to take two to three months.

Meanwhile, internal council emails obtained by Stuff show the ratepayer-funded review is expected to cost up to $74,750.

The decision by Foster to appoint Winder without input from all councillors has also ruffled some feathers, with councillor Jill Day questioning the mayor’s legal authority to commission a review himself and calling for LGNZ to lead the review.

Victoria University associate law professor Dr Dean Knight said although Foster technically had the authority to bypass councillors in calling for a review, the move could worsen tensions rather than ease them. ‘‘It’s not a legal question but a question of political wisdom. It raises eyebrows about whether it is the best way to go about it.’’

Knight said council committees had traditionally made decisions or recommendations concerning reviews but new powers given to mayors under the Local Government Act in 2013 meant that was no longer necessarily the case.

The law change allowed mayors to ‘‘provide leadership to the other members’’ of their local authority, and to people in the district.

However, Kyle Whitfield, from Otago University’s politics department, said the decision to commission a review should have gone through a council committee.

References to governance principles in the Local Government Act referred to the local authority, not the mayor, Whitfield said.

In an email sent to Foster, councillors, and chief executive Barbara McKerrow on Thursday, Day referenced council legislation that said all elected members needed to be involved in any governance review.

The next day, McKerrow replied saying while the strategy and policy committee was responsible for reviewing, developing, and recommending policy and practices relating to governance reviews, it could not initiate a review.

Day later said she accepted this.