Oakland Mayor: Simon Wilson - Business Unanswered Questions About Wayne Brown

opinion

Last week, I had a few questions for Oakland mayoral candidate Wayne Brown. My question today is for members of the business community and those who support him.

you
Do you want to close the infrastructure pipeline?

When Labor came to power in 2017, the infrastructure industry had one overarching demand. Maintaining a reliable pipeline of major projects. That pipeline has been established.

But Brown said no new construction projects should begin until existing construction projects are complete. This policy cuts the pipeline because it’s probably him 10 years from now.

I asked him about this last week at the Mayors’ Forum hosted by the Auckland Toll Payers Alliance.

It still doesn’t make sense. why stop the process?

If pipelines are closed, expertise will be lost abroad, funding mechanisms will collapse, and industries such as pipe manufacturing will struggle to survive. And the infrastructure deficit we’re trying to overcome now grows again, posing a new crisis for those responsible when Brown leaves.

And what else do you know? Road congestion is getting worse and worse.

Wayne Brown’s entire campaign is based on the idea that he knows how to “fix” Oakland.

It’s his own industry. how much does he know about it

Infrastructure groups, especially Business Chambers and Business NZ, had to point out this nonsense a few months ago.

Anyone worried about governance rules?

Why didn’t the Taxpayers Association and its partner organization, the Taxpayers Union, criticize Mr. Brown for combining his personal and public roles when he was mayor of the Far North?

In 2012, the Comptroller General called him “unwise” over an episode in which he used his position as a public servant to manage his own financial interests.

But just a year later, he was in trouble again. The council opposed him attending a mining conference in Canada and using the mayor’s credit card to pay for some of the expenses.

As The Northern Advocate reported at the time, the council voted against funding the trip. Among other things, they discovered that Brown had the mayor’s business card, which contained his personal contact details rather than his city council contact.

Brown paid back the money but never said he had done anything wrong.

What if he dismisses all boards?

Brown said last week that he would “promptly replace all members of all boards” of the council-controlled body.

Perhaps “soon” is just an exaggeration. Officer changes are possible, as current Mayor Phil Goff showed last year when he deliberately but decisively replaced the chairman of the Port of Oakland.

But there is no way to do it quickly without incurring costly litigation, and you risk bringing the organization’s work program to a halt and undermining the credibility of all who remain. executives.

And what kind of people make their name public in such a chaotic environment?

how about the staff?

Why don’t business leaders say no when former Brown’s colleagues and staff say he brought tears to their eyes?

Who’s going to tell him he needs a CRL?

Simeon Brown, National’s transportation spokesman, appeared on TVNZ’s Q&A on Sunday shortly after the mayoral candidacy and said the City Rail Link “will make a big difference to our city.”

he gets it He is also “eager to start” other transportation projects, such as the proposed busway from Botany to the airport.

But Wayne Brown said he was unsure of the CRL’s value and plans to shut down all new projects, including the Botany Busway.

When Simeon Brown is as clear as it is, Wayne Brown’s failure to understand the importance of transportation projects makes him a total outlier.

Who will tell him about Covid?

Asked on Sunday if he accepts that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused delays in CRL builds, he said it was “a bit lame” as other projects “appear to be well managed.” Stated. What business leader would say so? It suggests he has not been actively involved in the economy in the last three years.

Has Wayne Brown retired?

Brown has not held public office since his 2013 landslide run for re-election by the Far North mayor.

He’s 76 now, but he’s not a healthy 76 either. When asked about his transportation strategy in that question-and-answer interview, he complained that trees sometimes make it difficult to see street signs.

Instead of strategy, he keeps talking about putting GPS transponders on buses. This will turn the light green and allow the bus to pass.

But he doesn’t seem to have done any homework with the idea. He wonders how much it will cost, how it fits into the signal monitoring technology AT running at his Smales Farm in Takapuna, or whether it is part of AT’s new technology workstream. I don’t know if

I also don’t understand that transponders only work well if the bus has a priority lane and you can’t get stuck behind a car. He doesn’t seem to know much about his thoughts.

how about everything else?

We haven’t addressed most of the issues we raised last week, but they are also important to business. Mr. Brown has an apparent lack of respect for business confidentiality, a lack of city plans and big ideas, his alienating approach to government officials, and “it’s all about the numbers,” telling us, I have a strange habit of making mistakes with them.

What will happen to Brown in today’s business?

If you run a large company and you have an executive who is constantly complaining to your team but doesn’t seem to understand what he’s complaining about, he’s going to upset the staff. , angered business partners with his aggressive behavior. What do you do with him if he goes against company rules and wants to stop a project the company has committed to?

Move him up or ease him up?

Last question: why not Efeso Collins?

What exactly is Epheso Collins problem?

There may be good reasons not to vote for such a person, but what are they?

Collins has held civic leadership roles since college. As a councilor and local board chairman, he has brought his nine years of experience in how councils work, including budgets, official power plays, and relationships with CCOs.

he is not an operations manager. His strength is outward. He’s an orator, he knows how to articulate his vision of the city, and he stands up for what he believes to be right, but it’s often not easy .

He knows that the council, and Auckland Transport in particular, is not doing well and has suggestions to address it. He knows that, as most business leaders know, climate action must form the backbone of city programs.

As he says, he continues his “journey” from socially conservative church beliefs to broadly accepted inclusivity, working hard to bring his community with him. I came.

He was an arbitrator and one of the very few trustees who had good relations with all of his colleagues, including Goff’s opponents and major National Party figures like Treasury Committee chair Desiree Simpson. I am a person.

He knows how to sit around the table and get things done. Now he says he wants to apply that skill and experience to the city.

He’s not perfect, but he doesn’t have to be. He’s a “nice guy,” as Wayne Brown puts it, but that’s not a compliment. It should be an invaluable leadership skill.

Will he make a good mayor? I do not understand. But he could make us proud.