New Role For Rodney Councillor

8 October. Mauhurangi Matters newspaper. Rodney Councillor Greg Sayers says he wants to get back to basics following his appointment as chair of Auckland Council’s Budget Committee.

Late last month, Mayor Wayne Brown shook up his committee structure, introducing two new committees and shuffling councillors into new roles.

Sayers was one of several councillors to receive added responsibility.

Brown was the former chair, and Sayers said he appreciated the mayor’s confidence in him to take the lead on a powerful committee.

“I will be maximising the financial transparency and accountability of council’s financial performance for the ratepayer,” Sayers said.

He said it was important to get back to the basics and that spending decisions of elected members, including that of local boards, would be consistently challenged.

“Why are elected members voting to spend ratepayers’ money on non-council leisure centre group yoga classes, or giving away free haircuts ahead of keeping public rubbish bins in place?”

He noted the council was under extreme financial pressure to cut costs and questioned whether “using public money to fund disc jockeys” was the right thing to do.

He said the Budget Committee would ask chief executive officer Phil Wilson to make cost savings of $78 million to get greater value for money, which would be the largest cumulative savings since the creation of the Supercity.

The committee’s responsibilities include assisting the mayor to develop the 10-year budget and annual budget.