The leaders of Wellington’s under-fire water service provider defended their own jobs, but admitted the organisation is doomed to fail.
“I’m sorry that we are here today,” Wellington Water chief executive Pat Dougherty said, sitting beside board chair Nick Leggett, as the pair fronted up to mayors and councillors from around the Wellington region on Monday. The apologetic tone didn’t last long.
Wellington’s regional water services operator, which is jointly owned by six Wellington councils, is under pressure after two scathing reports found the organisation had poor financial oversight, a dysfunctional culture, cosy relationships with contractors, and was paying significantly more for pipe maintenance than other equivalent cities.
Usually, after a report like this, you’d expect the organisation’s leaders to flagellate themselves in front of the committee and babble about taking learnings forward. Not so much this time. Leggett and Dougherty arrived at the meeting defensive and determined to keep their jobs. They insisted they didn’t need to make any changes in response to the review because they were already fixing things. They pointed blame back at the councils for many underlying issues. They criticised media reporting. And yet, ironically, they both accepted that Wellington Water was a fundamentally flawed organisation that urgently needed to be replaced.
It’s no secret that Wellington’s pipes are munted. Voters blame councils for constant water leaks and the big rate increases required to fix them. Councils feel that’s unfair – the current Wellington City Council, for example, has made the biggest investment in water in decades and is still making up for the decisions of the past.
When things go wrong, Wellington Water rocks up to the council table and tells them how much money they need. Councillors don’t have as much decision-making oversight as they want, but if they say no, they get hammered in the media for not funding the pipes.
It’s understandable that, following this review, some councillors want a scalp. It sends a message to voters that A) Wellington Water is to blame and B) the council is holding them accountable. Wellington mayor Tory Whanau and 11 other Wellington City councillors signed a letter demanding changes, including the resignation of board chair Nick Leggett. Leggett and Dougherty are both recent appointees, having joined the organisation in 2023. They aren’t responsible for most of the historical issues. A resignation would be more symbolic than anything.
Porirua mayor Anita Baker defended Leggett, saying the letter was “vindictive“. She might be right. There are political undercurrents here. Nick Leggett is a member of the National Party and has occasionally been a thorn in the side of the Green-leaning Wellington City Council through his other roles as chief executive of Infrastructure New Zealand and formerly as chief executive of Transporting New Zealand, a lobby group for road freight.
The meeting began with a tone of assurance. Dougherty gave a LinkedIn monologue about how he had “changed the culture from one of learned helplessness to one of listening and action”. As evidence of a culture shift, he said an employee recently corrected him in a meeting, which wouldn’t have happened previously. Leggett channelled his inner Luxon by insisting he was “laser-focused on delivery”. He promised he was doing a good job. “I can look into your eye and say I’ve done everything I can and Wellington Water is better today,” he said.
Soon, though, things turned more hostile. “I feel like the most reviewed person in Christendom,” Dougherty complained. When asked whether he would launch further reviews into historical issues, he dismissed the idea, “I may as well turn the lights off and not do anything for the next three months.” He leapt to Leggett’s defence over the suggestion that he should resign: “This is our first proactive piece of action, and people are saying the chair should resign. What signal does that send?”
Dougherty said some aspects of the review had been misreported. It was “absolutely not correct” that Wellington Water was paying three times more for services than other cities. He clarified that Wellington Water was paying three times more per kilometre for unplanned repairs (which doesn’t sound much better).
Dougherty said providing services to six different councils meant their subcontractors were spread too thin, and inconsistent funding had caused supply issues. Leggett complained that councils hadn’t given Wellington Water the resources it needed to succeed, such as its own payroll system and asset management software.
For all their talk of driving change within the organisation, Leggett and Dougherty know that Wellington Water isn’t long for this world.
Under the government’s Local Water Done Well plan, Wellington Water will soon be replaced by a new entity with greater powers and borrowing capacity. Dougherty admitted the current version of Wellington Water was fundamentally incapable of addressing the underlying cost issues. “To drive down costs, the new company is the key,” he said. “My one plea is to make sure Wellington Water is not an impediment to the new company.”
The meeting felt like it was less about the fundamental flaws of a failing organisation and more about two directors trying to make sure they weren’t left with a black mark on their CVs. “Please let us govern for the next few months,” Leggett said at one point.
The meeting ended with a toothless motion to receive the reports and note that Wellington Water is making proactive changes. There were no management overhauls. No accountability. Nothing to ensure that things would be different. Wellington Water got permission to limp along feebly, continuing to ineffectively patch leaks on a deteriorating network, until someone has the mercy to take it out behind the barn and shoot it.
