• Dozens of Watercare staff were called into urgent meetings after Mayor Wayne Brown’s proposal to speed up back-office integration. 
• Brown aims to bring all council-controlled organisations’ back-office functions under one model by July 1, 2025. 
• Watercare chief executive Dave Chambers said the impact of the proposal is unclear, with final decisions expected in December. 

Dozens of Watercare staff were called into urgent meetings on Tuesday after senior managers were blindsided by Mayor Wayne Brown’s plans to speed up back-office functions, according to an insider. 

Watercare is outside of structural reform for the council-controlled organisations (CCOs) unveiled in the mayor’s draft budget on Tuesday, but buried in the document is a recommendation to speed up integrating the back-office functions of all the CCOs to save money. 

The functions include IT and digital, human resources, corporate support, and procurement. 

Brown said the Group Shared Services (GSS) exercise has been too slow and wants to bring all the functions under one model by July 1 next year. 

“We must get on with this work to realise all the benefits and savings,” he said. 

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is proposing a big shake-up of the CCOs. Photo / Dean Purcell 

A Watercare source told the Herald that back-office staff potentially affected by the shared services hurry-up were pulled into urgent meetings within half an hour of Brown releasing his report. 

“Executives and heads of departments were blindsided with no idea this was happening. The report was the first they heard of it,” a Watercare source told the Herald. 

Watercare chief executive Dave Chambers declined to comment on the report bosses were blindsided by the mayor’s proposal to speed up the group shared services work, or say how many of the 1300 staff at the CCO could be impacted. 

In a statement, he said the concept of council group shared services has been discussed for some time, and the CCO’s position had been to support them where they make sense for the business. 

Earlier this year, Watercare led the council group procurement on energy, and the council led the group procurement on insurance, Chambers said. 

“At this stage, the impact of the mayor’s group shared services proposal is unclear, but we are in regular discussions with Auckland Council and other council-controlled organisations. We look forward to gaining more information so we can share it with our team. 

“It’s important to note that the proposal is a draft, and final decisions are expected in December,” Chambers said. 

Events, like Pearl Jam at Go Media Stadium, would be brought in-house to Auckland Council under the mayor's proposal for CCO reform. Photo / Tom Grut 

The mayor’s proposal for CCO reform includes stripping Auckland Transport of its planning, policy and strategy functions; stripping Tātaki Auckland Unlimited of its economic development and major events functions; and abolishing Eke Panuku Auckland, which is responsible for urban regeneration. 

At a closed workshop on the mayoral proposal yesterday, councillors called for details of how the proposed reforms would be implemented, whether management is up to the task, and greater detail of what the new set-up at the council would look like. 

In a video recording of part of the meeting made public, council chief executive Phil Wilson said implementing any decisions by councillors would be challenging but “very confident” officers could manage it.