Mayor pips Coughlan to Airport board

Council have confirmed the Mayor will be its representative on Wellington International Airport’s board. Katie Chapman reports:

The mayor won’t be able to help decide how much ratepayers’ money is used to pay for Wellington’s airport development.

Celia Wade-Brown was appointed to Wellington International Airport’s board yesterday, despite council officers advising Wellington City Council that no elected members should be put on the board because of the danger of a conflict of interest.

The officers told councillors that, because of decisions about the amount of public money that would go towards the runway extension, the presence of a councillor on the board would create complex conflicts.

The airport, in which the council is a 34 per cent shareholder,  wants to extend the runway to attract long-haul flights, and the council has committed $1 million towards preparing a resource consent application.

The project was often lauded during this year’s election campaign as a key step to fostering economic growth in the city.

The council has had an elected member on the board since 1998. At yesterday’s full council meeting, councillors said they would rather have a member on the board and have that member step aside whenever the council voted on airport matters, because they wanted to ensure there was a political voice on the board.

“I believe it’s better to be inside the tent, given consideration of the airport extension,” deputy mayor Justin Lester said.

But Ray Ahipene-Mercer, Helene Ritchie and Nicola Young voted against the move, saying it would leave only 14 councillors to debate the key project – which meant vital votes could be split, leaving the decision up to a casting vote.

It will be very interesting to see how this changes (if it does at all) the dynamics of the airport extentsion debate.

Celia Wade-Brown also extinguished another bid by Jo Coughlan to feather her nest when she won the appointment on a 8-7 vote. On the bright for side for Coughlan it’s one less meeting she has to skip or ditch early this term.

The council then nominated both Ms Wade-Brown and Jo Coughlan to be on the board, with the mayor winning the role by eight votes to seven.

After the meeting, Ms Wade-Brown said the councillors had decided they were comfortable with only 14 people voting, and she would continue to advocate for the runway project to regional and central government. “The public expect direct elected-member input on the airport and our other entities that council has a shareholding in.

“As I said to councillors, there is likely to be a vote where I stand aside from a decision on the proportion of ratepayers versus WIAL [airport company] funding due to this conflict. A strong majority of council agreed this was acceptable.”

Meanwhile council also signed of on final board appointments and remuneration for the term which will range from:

$80,490 for portfolio leaders to $99,580 for the deputy mayor. The mayor’s salary of $158,300 was set by the Remuneration Authority.

The council agreed on its committee structure and appointments to other boards, and reiterated the decision to scrap extra pay for councillors on the boards of council-owned companies.

That decision was extended to other board positions where the council is a shareholder, including the airport appointment, with pay from those positions instead being directed into council grants pools.

The decision to divert director and board fees gained by elected members from council appointments is a good one and should have happened years ago. They only get appointed because they are a councillor, a job they already get paid reasonably well to do.

Nicola Young will be pleased one for her campaign pledges has already been achieved (despite policy being changed in November 2012) and the community will be pleased to see councillors not milking the system and having bigger grants pools.

Thanks to Wellington.Scoop here are some other key council appointments:

Councillor Paul Eagle as its trustee for the Basin Reserve and the Stadium, replacing John Morrison.

Justin Lester continues as the council representative on the Wellington Waterfront Board, though this is one of the council-controlled organisations which is expected to be abolished before the end of the year.

Simon Woolf was appointed to the boards of Positively Wellington Tourism and also Wellington Venues – also entities for which amalgamations are expected.

Once I track down the full list I will post it here.