Wellington mayor Tory Whanau says she welcomes the decision of Local Government Minister Simeon Brown to appoint a crown observer. Photo: RNZ
Analysis - The government's decision to wade into Wellington Council's woes means its ultimate success or failure will not only reflect on the mayor, but the prime minister too.
The big step to appoint a Crown observer - described as an overreach by some academics - has set a new threshold for any councillors behaving badly.
It's not uncommon for councils to be afflicted by dysfunction and disorder; they just often don't get the same campaign-like attention Wellington has experienced in recent months.
A card-carrying Green Party mayor with a left-leaning majority on a council table, sitting just five minutes up the road from the most right-leaning Cabinet in decades, has already raised questions about the motivations behind the government's intervention.
The prime minister baulked at the idea political differences were to blame, but the microscope on Wellington's mayor and council has been intense, and Tory Whanau has in part put that down to its proximity to the Beehive.
Now, the hunt for an observer begins, assuming Local Government Minister Simeon Brown hasn't already done the legwork on finding someone ahead of his intervention announcement on Tuesday.
The moment Brown, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and Finance and Infrastructure Ministers Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop - both Wellingtonians - all started putting the boot into the council two weeks ago about its long term plan woes, the path to an observer was in train.
Ministers could have criticised the council but in the same breath pointed to an election just 12 months away, where voters could democratically decide the fate of Whanau and her councillors.
Instead, they launched a "shambles" tirade alongside threats of intervention, immediately sealing the deal that it would have to follow through with action.
Whanau fields questions from media after the appointment of a government observer for the council was announced. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Whanau is a former Beehive political operative and has so far played a smart game, saying she welcomed their intervention and had no plans to challenge it.
At her press conference on Tuesday afternoon following Brown's announcement, she deliberately told reporters "we need assistance, not punching down".
The government has now backed itself into a corner by forcing that assistance, and if the outcome is no better than the current "shambles", it is Luxon, Willis, Brown and Bishop who will also wear the blame.
What Brown will be looking for in an observer is someone who can go through the financial paper trail of the council and find a way to get the books back in shape.
While former National Party politicians Anne Tolley and Lawrence Yule were made Tauranga Commissioner and Regional Hawke's Bay Crown Manager, respectively, the role of observer will be less about political and board management nous, and more about accounting.
For that reason it's quite possible the observer will come from, or have experience, at one of the top accounting firms, while also being respected professionally with no specific political ties.
The coalition is already facing accusation that it only intervened because of its differing political ideologies to those of the council's majority.
That makes it less likely an observer would have actual or perceived ties to the current government.
The role of the observer would almost certainly work closely with the council's chief financial officer to unpick the issues Brown pointed to on Tuesday - the unworkable long term plan, and the council's frontloading water costs onto ratepayers rather than taking on more debt financing.
But as Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry told Morning Report earlier on Wednesday, water infrastructure funding headaches aren't unique to Wellington City Council.
"I would say for most metropolitan councils around the country, they would be in the same position because currently through our long-term plan a few months ago, we were required to stick within headroom, stay within the balance sheet options that we had," he said.
"And what the government put forward in the Wellington case, and they're saying they should have done, they couldn't have, which just seems very unusual."
The coalition's threshold for intervention has now been set, and while Willis says no other councils are in the government's crosshairs right now, a warning shot has been fired.
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