Community advocate Dave Letele has called for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown to step down, saying his response to the Auckland floods has been an "absolute disgrace".
Speaking with Breakfast this morning, Letele said Brown was "out of his depth".
"You can't keep blaming advisors, end of the day you're the leader and you set the tone," he said.
"My message to Wayne is that, this was his opportunity to really stand up and deliver and he just hasn't. I'd go [as] far as saying that he needs to resign over this."
Letele further criticised the local government's response to the flooding, particularly honing on the lack of communication with affected Aucklanders.
"'Hold tight' is the message we're getting. It's just an absolute disgrace," he said. "With Covid-19 you had that one page where people could go to and get information, that's not there."
Brown has come under fire since Friday for a perceived slow response in declaring a state of emergency for the Auckland region.
He defended his actions on Saturday, saying he had to wait for an official request from the emergency management centre.
"It took a lot of concentration, it happened quickly, and the response was way quicker than people acknowledged," he said.
On Sunday he admitted that "there may have been" some mistakes in the initial response to the floods.
"This is a great example of a community getting together and showing some leadership and they overcame what may have been some incorrect decisions from the emergency management group," he said. "Today's role for me is to make sure the lessons of yesterday are learnt."
A petition calling for Brown's removal began on Friday and has received 8,900 signatures as of 9am Monday.
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