Incoming Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has noted the resignation last night of Auckland Transport (AT) chair Adrienne Young-Cooper.

In a letter to the people of Auckland published today in the city’s Herald on Sunday newspaper, Mr Brown said his key mayoral pledge was to bring Auckland Council’s Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) back under control.

“My most immediate priority is AT,” Mr Brown wrote. “There is no council agency which is so important to Aucklanders or one about which you are angrier. I think the board of directors should heed the message from the election and offer to resign. Boards of directors at some other CCOs need also to consider their positions.”

Mr Brown will be spending today with his family and making calls, and will not be making any substantive comments to the media.

He has asked council officers to provide him on Monday morning with a full briefing on the council’s books, their economic forecasts over the next three years, and all contingent liabilities and other risks. That includes not just the council itself, but also the CCOs and all the other entities in which ratepayers have an interest.

Through the rest of the week, Mr Brown plans to meet with all members of the new governing board to congratulate them in person and to discuss how they can best help deliver the change Auckland voters have demanded.

In his letter, Mr Brown wrote he wants every councillor and member of the Independent Māori Statutory Board to have a role that interests and challenges them, and which is more meaningful than they have had before, with powers to make real decisions for which they will be directly accountable to voters.

Similarly, he wrote that he plans also to devolve more decision-making powers to Local Boards, given they are closest to the region’s communities.

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