UPDATED: Burns and Williamson call out Auckland Council’s “toxic culture”

Howick ward councillors Bo Burns, left, and Maurice Williamson. File photos

Howick ward councillor Bo Burns is publicly calling out what she describes as a toxic culture within Auckland Council.

And her council colleague Maurice Williamson says he fully supports her comments on the issue.

In a recent social media post entitled “Politics is not an excuse”, Burns says she’s twice walked out of council work situations “where I believed the behaviour and culture being displayed were unacceptable”.

“Politics should never be an excuse for poor behaviour,” she says.

“Politics, at its best, is about ideas. It is about advocacy. It is about listening, debating, challenging assumptions, and presenting a better solution.

“It is about having the ability to persuade others through evidence, logic, relationships and respectful discussion.”

Burns says politics is open-mindedness, respectful debate, strong advocacy, collaboration, finding common ground, challenging ideas, not people, and convincing others through the strength of your argument.

It is not bullying, personal attacks, intimidation, abuse, gossip, anger for the sake of anger, or tearing people down over disagreements.

“It is absolutely okay to have different opinions,” she says.

“In fact, democracy depends on it. We should expect people to see issues differently, challenge ideas, and advocate strongly for the positions they believe in.

“What matters is how we do it. For me, I don’t care which way people vote.

“I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, and I certainly don’t expect to agree with everyone else.

“What I care about is that people are respectful, professional, and come prepared with the information and knowledge needed to make good decisions.

“My approach is simple: get in there, do the work, have the debate, make the decision, and move forward professionally.

“One of my biggest concerns is that when discussions become emotional, hostile, or intimidating, good decision-making suffers.

“Whether someone is angry, upset, crying, feeling attacked, or being bullied, they are no longer operating in an environment that encourages open-minded thinking, respectful consideration of different viewpoints, or sound decision-making.”

Burns says democracy works best when people feel safe to contribute, challenge ideas, ask questions, and even change their minds.

It doesn’t work when emotion, fear, intimidation, or hostility become tools to influence outcomes, she says.

“Over the last two weeks, I have personally taken a stand on this. I have walked out of situations where I believed the behaviour and culture being displayed were unacceptable.

“I have also made it clear that meaningful steps need to be taken to improve the culture.”

Burns says the council’s staff are “so amazing, they are caring, thoughtful, incredibly smart and also shouldn’t be open to this toxic culture. It’s awful”.

Williamson says he “fully supports” her comments.

“I think she’s absolutely right. I’ve made complaints in the past and they were never actioned or taken account of.

Bo Burns was elected to Auckland Council in the Howick ward at last year’s local elections. File photo

“I seemed to be target number one when I got there [the council], probably because I’d been a National [Party] Member of Parliament for 30 years, and it was determined I was going to be the butt of all attacks for no reason. I couldn’t understand why.

“It was real nastiness coming at me at most meetings for no reason.

“I sat there quite bewildered, thinking I hadn’t said anything or done anything to upset anybody, and I think Bo’s experiencing it now as a first-term councillor.

“There’s just this mentally of, ‘if you’re not with us, then you’re against us, and we’re going to get you’.

“And it’s quite toxic. I’ve lived with it because I’m a big boy and I can take the blows.

“I’m not particularly fussed what other people think about me or don’t think about me.

“But it’s not a conducive environment for working in some form of a collegial way.

“You’ve got councillors saying, ‘it’s dreadful that we weren’t able to work together on the [council’s] budget’.

“Well, their definition of ‘working together’ seems like, ‘you need to work with us’, not ‘let’s sit down and see where we can find some middle ground’.

“I just think Bo is well within her rights to say what she’s done and I support her entirely. She’s a strong lady who’s not prepared to tolerate some of that stuff.”

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown says: “I’m currently in Singapore, speaking at a water conference and this is the first I’ve heard about this.”

He says the only bullying he was aware of was from two particular groups, who are not councillors.

“But Aucklanders expect us to make tough decisions on their behalf, and robust debate is a normal part of that,” Brown says.

“We’ve had some challenging issues to get through recently, and we need to keep working together in a respectful way for the good of Auckland.

“My focus is on delivering the outcomes Aucklanders deserve, and I want all councillors to remain focused on the job they were elected to do. My door is always open to councillor Burns.”

And Auckland Council chief executive Phil Wilson adds: “The role of elected representative is a tough one, requiring members to represent their communities and their views; be connected to their constituents; take part in robust debates and make difficult decisions.

“For all that they give to democracy in Auckland, they deserve respect – from their peers and from us.

“They deserve an environment to work in that makes them feel able to do that work without fear of attack or unreasonable behaviour.

“Most elected members behave respectfully and constructively most of the time and in my experience are all genuinely motivated by what we have to achieve together in terms of outcomes for Auckland.

“To the extent that I ever need to have conversations with elected members about the tone of discussions, I do so respectfully and in confidence.”

The Times has contacted a representative for deputy mayor Desley Simpson for comment also.

• Bo Burns is the owner of Times Media, the publisher of the Eastern Times.

Read here: https://www.times.co/nz