When the Super City, or Auckland Council as it’s officially known, was formed almost 10 years ago, a model was established to separate the council ‘parent’ from the council-controlled organisations or CCOs. This model allowed for approximately two-thirds of our services to the public, two thirds of our assets and therefore about half our operational budget spend to be overseen by non-elected independent boards of directors or trustees.
Some of these organisations will be well known to you, like Auckland Transport and Watercare but you may be less familiar with Panuku, our development arm; Regional Facilities Auckland – who run venues like our award-winning zoo, our stadiums and our art gallery; and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) – our economic growth agency.
While CCOs were set up to be independent, each of them was supposed to be accountable to the mayor and councillors. It was this group of publicly elected governors who were required to monitor their performance, set their strategic direction and approve their statement of intent. In essence, they are publicly owned entities that exist to provide services to those who partly or wholly fund them, and that is the people of Auckland. However, the model did not provide for the mayor and councillors to control the recruitment process for their staff, including their chief executives and the remuneration they receive.
Over the ten years since CCOs have been operational, there have been examples of great things happening but also examples highlighting significant room for improvement.
In my first term as your Ōrākei ward councillor I frequently found myself frustrated with some of the limitations of the system and this term I was determined to seek a review of the model to ensure it truly delivered the best value for ratepayers.
I am therefore pleased to advise we have done exactly that. Last December, we appointed an independent panel of experts, chaired by Miriam Dean, to lead a review into the effectiveness of the CCO model, the accountability mechanisms between CCOs and council, and the culture of the CCOs. The panel’s remit was to identify what was working well, what wasn’t working and almost most importantly how we could improve outcomes for Aucklanders. After a period of engagement with the public, over 100 stakeholders and the CCOs themselves, the panel recently presented their findings to the mayor and councillors during a series of workshops.
Following that, my fellow councillors and I met publicly to consider the review’s report and its 64 recommendations before voting unanimously to progress them all. Some can be actioned immediately, with others requiring further analysis or input from local boards. Within three months, a detailed work programme for implementing the recommendations will be reported to the council’s CCO Oversight Committee (of which I’m a member) and through that committee we will continue to monitor progress.
So, what did the review say?
The review supported the CCO model in general but found room for improvement. Recommendations include developing ‘statements of expectation’ for CCOs, with reference to chief executive remuneration; establishing a common set of council-CCO key performance indicators, including customer complaint resolution; developing a group policy to identify areas where services can be shared by the council and CCOs; and strengthening the CCO-local board relationship.
Most significantly, the proposals included a merger between ATEED and Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) which will save ratepayers up to $67 million over the next decade. ATEED and RFA will now begin working through the details of how this will be implemented and how the combined agency, which will undertake all the current functions and activities of ATEED and RFA, will be able to deliver great outcomes for Auckland. As well as the cost-saving benefits, it was agreed that ATEED and RFA share similar goals and their social, economic and cultural functions are intrinsically linked, meaning their amalgamation will result in a co-ordinated region wide approach to cultural, arts, sports and business events.
Changes for other CCOs include Auckland Transport (AT) urgently reviewing how it designs, consults on, funds and implements minor capital works and forming a working group to clearly delineate their by-law making powers.
Additionally, council will formulate a three-waters strategy and will reach an agreement with Watercare and AT on clear, measurable minimum performance levels. The full report and list of recommendations are available on council’s website.
CCOs need to operate effectively and efficiently to provide a good return on your ratepayer dollars. As organisations, they are responsible for delivering numerous projects across the region and we should have high expectations their work will provide better outcomes for all Aucklanders. While I think great things has been achieved to date, I strongly support these recommendations that suggest we can always do things better.
It’s been a lengthy process but an important one – a good opportunity to make improvements before we head into developing our 10-year budget. To those of you who provided feedback as a part of this review, I thank you for your extremely valued input, helping to reshape the future of these organisations.