What a difference a day makes!

Last night we went public on Auckland Council's plans to spend up to $10 million on a new Council chamber so that the Mayor and Councillors don't have to walk the 400 metres to the existing chamber in the Auckland Town Hall. The confidential briefing, provided to the Ratepayers’ Alliance and given to One News, was requested by councillors who asked officials for "options to improve councillor and public experience" and move the chamber into the Council’s new office tower at 135 Albert Street.

As a result of our shinning the light on what the Council was doing behind closed doors, the Council has backed down with One News today unable to find a single Councillor willing to support the proposal they had asked for!

The One News coverage of our release of the secret briefing made to Councillors is here. We also uploaded the full presentation to here.

Today Mayor Len Brown fronted (unlike yesterday) but surprisingly blamed his CEO - even though it was pointed out to him that the presentation makes clear that this was an initiative the Councillors had requested…

For an organisation less than a month old, we are proud that our efforts have already forced a Council back down that will save ratepayers millions. Our work isn’t costless though – if you can chip in, donate now to help us keep the Super City honest.