Mark Thomas wants to reign in Auckland Council

  • 25/02/2016
Mark Thomas (Paul Henry)
Mark Thomas (Paul Henry)

Auckland mayoral candidate Mark Thomas has announced his top three priorities:

1. Make council more affordable by focusing our $3.5billion annual expenditure more tightly and effectively.

2. Deliver better transport sooner by diverting more funding to it from the current poorly allocated spending, and reprioritising regional spending buckets to specific local priorities.

3. Achieve more effective growth planning which both builds more affordable houses sooner and does a much better job protecting the character of Auckland.

Mark is a business executive with an extensive community leadership background. He’s run an Auckland-based consulting and services business “Serviceworks” for 10 years which included owning and operating a Metro Top 50 restaurant. Mark has held senior management roles in the banking and energy industries, including Head of Group Marketing at ANZ Bank.

Mr Thomas says that even though candidates like Phil Goff get more media coverage, he believes he can win.

“I’m not here for a badge of honour. I’ve got key National Party people on my team.”

He says there are too many staff in Auckland Council and to combat this he will cap the amount of money he gives to the CEO who controls staff numbers and costs.