Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown with Auckland Council chief executive Jim Stabback. Photo: RNZ / Jonty Dine
Auckland Council's chief executive has broken his silence a week on from the release of a damning flood review.
Commissioned by the mayor, the review highlighted the numerous failings of council in response to the 27 January floods, including a lack of leadership and communication.
Council boss Jim Stabback sat down with media on Tuesday to respond to the damning review.
"We were not as well-prepared as we should have been for the events that unfolded on the 27th of January, and our response on the evening of that event was not what it should have been, nor what Aucklanders should expect," he said.
Stabback was blunt but apologetic in sharing his thoughts on former police commissioner Mike Bush's flood response investigation.
Eleven weeks after the floods, and one week after the release of thereview, Stabback said he has had time to fully digest the findings, which called his relationship with mayor and emergency staff insufficiently inclusive - that included his decision to go home before the floods were in full effect.
"In hindsight, of course it looks like a mistake, but in the moment I didn't know what I didn't know - the view I had of the impact of what was going on in Auckland was limited," he said.
Hard lessons learned, at the cost of human life - something Stabback could not say would have been prevented if they had prepared better.
"I can't speak to whether doing that would have prevented the tragedies that we saw on the evening, but better communication will always mitigate that risk," he said.
The council's head of governance, Phil Wilson, said the report highlighted the council's short-comings.
"There's a lot I could say about the last two-and-a-half months, it's been a pretty intense time for a lot of people," he said.
Wilson said there were many criticisms to be made of the response on the night of the floods, as well as plenty of improvements to be made.
He said they had already looked at different approaches for the next storm of that scale.
"We need a system where there is a better, stronger element of local planning, local response, and the ability of local leaders, including particularly the local boards, to play a role."
A local approach is something deputy chair of the Henderson Massey Local Board Brooke Loader would be keen to see. She said there were areas to build on from the review.
West Auckland was one of the worst-hit areas. Loader said the region needed a community-minded approach.
"If, as part of this review, we could have that as an opportunity to develop more localised response plans because we're the one's at the coal-face of the community and would be able better support that response, I think that's a good opportunity moving forward."
Manukau Ward councillor Alf Filipaina said the council needed to "get in to fixing what Mike Bush's report has outlined".
His community was ready with flood response on Saturday morning and had set up a Māngere Bridge civil defence centre for the first two days, he told Morning Report.
"We know we're ready, we had already identified some places.
"I'm quite confident in the community led approach that we had in Māngere."
He hoped the leadership would be able to get things right ahead of future flooding and said there had to be a better relationship between the mayor and chief executive.
"I'm quite confident in the community-led approach that we had in Māngere." - Manukau Ward councillor Alf Filipaina
Approached for comment, Mayor Wayne Brown's office said they had nothing to add, and that they would discuss the review further at a governing body meeting next week.