Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has denied any involvement in forwarding councillors copies of emails from the public containing abusive language.
The Spinoff's Hayden Donnell revealed on Friday that Brown sent a PDF document containing several emails, claimed to be received by members of the public, berating councillors for refusing to back his plan to sell off shares in Auckland's airport.
Auckland Council owns an 18% stake in the airport. The sale of those shares would help fill a $325 million hole in the council's budget, preventing household rates from rising over inflation.
The message to councillors contained a single line from the Mayor: "On behalf of Mayor Wayne Brown, please find attached – Emails received today – Feedback on Mayoral Proposal for Auckland Council’s Annual Budget 2023-24."
The attached emails contained antagonistic and insulting language. One of them read: "can I ask, which of the dip sh**s councillors are against the sale of the airport. Shame you can't kick there [sic] ass as that's where there [sic] brains are."
It comes after a contentious meeting on Thursday in which he pushed councillors to either sell the shares or suffer cuts to spending for arts and community services, calling dissenting councillors "financially illiterate".
Brown's staff tried to prevent some media, including TVNZ, Newshub and Stuff, from attending the briefing. Excluded media were only allowed in after journalists in the room threatened to leave.
However, speaking to The New Zealand Herald, Brown denied any role in forwarding the emails, saying they were sent out by members of his staff who are in charge of his online communications.
"I neither wrote the emails nor sent them, nor even know my staff had done so in a fit of excitement," Brown told the Herald yesterday.
Brown "could potentially use better language," Auckland Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson told RNZ's Lisa Owen on Friday.
Forwarding insulting emails to councillors has not made the budget process any smoother, Simpson said. "It is probably the most complex and detailed budget that we have ever done ... So I think it's going to be challenging for us all."
Some councillors have taken issue with Brown's strategy of threatening spending cuts if his proposed sale of the airport shares isn't supported.
"That's blackmail, that’s wrong, and it's something we have to rise above," Councillor Alf Filipaina said.
"This is not how we do things the Pacific way; we sit around and talanoa about all the alternatives, around the levers we have in front of us."
Councillor Josephine Bartley responded to Brown's email with her own. She shared it in a tweet, saying: "Since we're sharing emails n all".
"Just wanted to take the time to share my continual disappointment in your comments as Mayor," Bartley said.
"Honestly, I'm sick to my back teeth of the petulant and childish manner in which you conduct yourself. It's deeply unbecoming of a holder of such an office."
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