Fundraiser or Concert?

Stuff suggests that Manukau City mayor Len Brown may have dug himself into a rather large hole over a dinner at the centre of an expenses row - read on:

A fundraiser Manukau mayor Len Brown said was held to support a local emerging artist was for an Australian-based professional tenor.

Brown billed his attendance at Manurewa's Volare Italian Restaurant function on his credit card for $810.

No itemised receipt of what was consumed that night or who attended with the mayor has been provided to the council.

Brown apologised for sloppy record keeping around his credit card expenses during an emotional speech on Tuesday night at a council meeting . Some tax invoices have been missing from his credit card reconciliations, as have descriptions for what various spending was for, in breach of Manukau city policy.

Brown is paid $160,000 each year.

At the committee meeting he refused to say who he took to the Volare function.

"Will I give you the names? Never. I want to tell you that, I feel so intensely strong about this," he said, saying the privacy of the attendees needed to be respected.

On Monday Brown told TVOne's Breakfast co-host Paul Henry it was "a totally appropriate occasion. It was fundraiser in support of a young singing artist in our community".

Two things stand out here. Len Brown has really fudged this issue, in our opinion. It seems that the more he says, the worse it sounds. Perhaps Len needs to go to the newly-opened Shane Jones Mea Culpa Academy!

The other issue is this; why does Len Brown insist on privacy over those who attended this "fundraiser", when they were paid for with public money? Had Len Brown paid the bill himself, privacy over who shared the mayoral table would not be an issue. But the ratepayers of Manukau City deserve to know how their rates are being spent, and on whom.

Len Brown's handling of this issue has been inept. We suggest that the next Supercity mayoral poll will be very different to the last one.