Christchurch Mayor hits back at critic | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Mayor Garry Moore has gone on the attack about a complaint lodged with the Auditor General over the controversial $800,000 civic office revamp.

Moore yesterday belittled the author of the complaint ? former city councillor Linda Rutland ? saying it was "errant nonsense" that was "trivialising the time of the Auditor General" Kevin Brady.

"If she had to pay for his time herself she wouldn't be doing it," he said.

Rutland alleges the city council's chief executive, Lesley McTurk, exceeded her delegated power when she authorised the costly improvements to the Tuam St offices.

She said councillors passed a resolution in March that only "essential maintenance" should be carried out on the existing building in light of new civic offices being built soon.

"Renovating the chamber, removing public gallery space and installing offices are not essential maintenance. The only action required to meet the accommodation needs of the new council was to remove 12 chairs and a corresponding amount of table space," Rutland said.

She said the intent of the council in passing the motion was to minimise costs to ratepayers, given the allocation of $53 million for a new building in the 2004/05 budget. Rutland questioned whether McTurk had strayed into the territory of governance when spending that level of ratepayers' money without authority.

But Moore said he considered the $800,000 upgrade was necessary maintenance.

"I have every confidence the right processes were followed. My advice to Linda Rutland is to stop worrying about council. The election is over. She is not here. She needs to get on with her life. It's happening and this is like crying over spilt milk. It's here (the renovations) and we'll move in at the start of next year. "We will pull our staff out of other offices and stop paying the rent and get back to ordinary business," he said.

The upgraded building will be completed early next year, with council meetings scheduled to be held there when council reconvenes in February.

"The council room will go from being used once or twice a week to being used every day. It will be used constantly," Moore said.