The Finance Minister is doubling down on calling Wellington City Council a "shambles", despite her colleague's meeting with the city's mayor this morning.
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said there was no talk of government intervention during her talk this morning with the Local Government Minister.
Whanau earlier arrived at Parliament for a meeting with Simeon Brown as her council faces the threat of government intervention.
The council has to find a way to fill a huge budget hole, after a decision not to sell its airport shares.
In a statement, Brown said Whanau updated him on recent decisions made by the Wellington City Council and the impact they may have on ratepayers.
"As previously mentioned, I have requested advice on whether the situation warrants government intervention and am expecting that advice in coming days."
Whanau told RNZ she hoped the rhetoric from ministers, saying the council is a "shambles" and "shemozzle", didn't continue.
But Nicola Willis reiterated her comments.
"It's a shambles at the council and it's really important it be delivering for Wellingtonians who are facing some of the biggest rate rises in the country, who have shared with me their growing levels of frustration about a council that has seemed more focussed on itself and its own internal battles than the needs of people here in Wellington."
Willis said she wasn't a TAB agent and wouldn't give odds on any government intervention.
Following the meeting, Whanau said the conversation was polite and friendly and was mainly about her giving an update on the council.
She said she would not legally challenge the government if it decided to appoint a Crown Observer.
"I don't believe we've met the threshold for an observer or commissioner. However, I understand the concerns that have occurred as a result of last week."
Whanau said there were no further meetings planned with the minister and she hopes the rhetoric from other ministers, saying the council is a "shambles" and "shemozzle", doesn't continue.
If a Crown observer is appointed, she would accept the minister's decision.
"I will live with it, and I will work in good faith with him to move forward."
Whanau says the minister is still waiting on advice about any potential interventions.
Whanau said she understood while the government had concerns the council was committed to running a successful long-term plan.
She told media the minister didn't express any concerns to her about the council.
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said yesterday's meeting had been "very productive". Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"I acknowledge that the decision around Wellington Airport was, was a tough one for all of us."
She said there had been a lot of attention given to her council in recent days.
Whanau reiterated her belief that the council had not met the threshold of government intervention.
"There was certainly no decision on government intervention today."
The meeting was requested by the mayor, in order to be "proactive" and update him on progress made by the council on its long term plan.
She said he gave no indication of intervention, and was still waiting on advice regarding intervention from the Department of Internal Affairs.
Councillor Tony Randle told reporters he was open to a Crown Observer being appointed to oversee the council, but appointing a Commissioner would be "too far."
"The councillors are trying very hard to work together and we've got a new Long Term Plan to pull together, but I don't think that we're going to do a terrible job."
Randle said it's the Minister's decision, "he's trying to judge what's right for Wellington."
"We've tripped up a few times, and for that you get put on detention don't you."
He said when the Prime Minister is making comments, that's a "shot across the bow."
"If we mess up one more time, it certainly will happen."
Earlier
Ahead of the meeting, Whanau said she intended to have a "productive" meeting with Brown.
"I'm going to head in now, but I look forward to chatting to you all after."
Whanau said she had a plan to show him, but she would "prefer to tell the minister first" what it was.
Asked if the council had met the threshold for a Crown observer, she did not agree.
"But I look forward to hearing what he has to say."
Council meeting Wednesday
Councillors met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss how its Long-term Plan (LTP) could be amended.
After councillors had previously called for government intervention and expressed a lack of faith in the mayor, most councillors presented a more united front yesterday, telling the media they were confident they could find a way forward.
Ben McNulty said there had been an agreement around the table from councillors of what they now needed to look at.
"I would probably classify it as the most productive meeting we've had as city councillors in this triennium," he said.
"I think there was a lack of ego in the room for once."
Most items would be on the table, but water funding was one of the big exceptions.
McNulty said a plan had not yet been formed, but an approach on a path going forward would be taken to the minister.
He maintained that any government intervention from there would be straight politics.
Iona Pannett said the council had not actually broken the law.
"I've been a councillor for a long time, we've had lots of big arguments, this is not the first or the last one," she said.
"We have not broken the law. There's actually no reason for intervention.
"We've made a call and now we're going to make another call," she said.
Meanwhile, Ray Chung would rather have an election than government intervention. He has already put his name forward for the job.
He was not convinced having a Crown observer would solve the problem.
"What would it result in if this observer came and sat at the back of the room and sort of looked at how things went? What does that actually change?"
Whanau said yesterday's meeting had been "very productive".
She said the vote against selling airport shares meant the council was now moving forward to develop a LTP amendment that would address it insurance risk due to earthquakes and climate change disasters.
"A bottom line for me as we move forward is that we address this insurance challenge without increasing rates further. I also want to assure the public that, as we go through this process, I do not intend to cut projects that are critical for our city's growth and sustainability. For me, that means protecting our social housing, and continuing funding for water and key climate initiatives," Whanau said.
"We agreed that we must address our insurance risk. An important step towards this is to reduce our debt consistently over the course of the next 10 years so that we achieve $500m of debt headroom in the case of a disaster. We will be working together to identify where these reductions will come from."
She said councillors had a "shared commitment" to "investigate the sale of ground leases and carbon credit holdings to form the basis of a fund (or other insurance mechanism) that can offer both returns and form of self-insurance to council and would grow over time".
Whanau said the previous proposal to create a self-insurance fund was widely supported by councillors, even if the sale of airport shares was not.
"None of the decisions ahead of us are easy, but a majority of councillors and pouiwi support this approach and are committed to doing what is right for our city."
She said she was looking forward to Thursday's meeting with Brown.
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