Auckland's councillors are "a bunch of drips", according to former Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Harvey was hugely critical of both Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and his councillors.
"They're a bunch of drips. Let's face it they are not good, the council of Auckland is a cot-case. They are, there's no talent there, there's no creativity, there's no vision.
"They are dysfunctional and they've always been dysfunctional, look around them, they have never worked closely with the mayor to work through what they could do."
The former mayor also labelled Brown as abrasive and said he "isn't great with people", although he got on well with him when he was Far North mayor.
It comes just hours before the council is set to vote on the airport share sales plan.
The council owns 18% of the airport, the biggest single shareholding. Brown estimates that share is worth about $2.2 billion.
He has argued that, to keep services and reduce debt, all the shares must go.
Brown has also said if his proposed sale of the airport shares isn't supported, spending cuts could be on the cards, which some councillors have taken issue with.
"That's blackmail, that’s wrong, and it's something we have to rise above," councillor Alf Filipaina said over the weekend.
"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".
Harvey said he doesn't think the council's airport shares should be sold, and Brown will have a tough time convincing his councillors to vote otherwise.
"What the hell did he think, that all those councillors were going to fall in love with him, they clearly haven't.
"Those councillors have always voted no for everything, I think he thought he'd have a dream run, he'd run in there, new mayor, 'I'm the one to fix things'".
"A bit of charm and aftershave might work, but it's a bit late now, he should've done that from day one."
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