Mayor Wayne Brown of Auckland has copped a fair bit of criticism for his handling of the flooding disaster over the weekend, but I note a lot of that criticism is based on a misunderstanding of a mayor's role when it comes to declaring an emergency.

People have asked why he didn't declare much earlier in the piece, as the extent of the calamity hitting the city became obvious.  

The thing is though, while a mayor technically can decide for themselves when to declare an emergency, realistically it would be an act of incredible foolishness and arrogance to do so.  

The proper process is that the professionals in Emergency Management look at the situation, what has happened, what is coming and whether the systems, especially the emergency services, are coping. That decision on the emergency services is made collaboratively with the services, based on whether they can cope with the projected or known impact of the event within current resources and/or capacity. The Emergency Management leaders then make the call and put the piece of paper in front of the mayor to sign if they deem it necessary.  

A mayor should not second guess these highly trained people so I don't think Mayor Brown can fairly be blamed for any perceived delay in any declaration.

I have also heard criticism of Mayor Brown for being in his office, rather than out and about; on Friday night in particular. 

Again, this doesn't reflect the reality of the situation at the time. I recall when the flood hit Roxburgh in 2017, I was eager to jump in my car and get down there straight away. The then CEO made the obvious point though being "how can you sign a declaration if you are on the road or anywhere else other than the Emergency Operation Centre?". 

It was bloody frustrating at the time but unfortunately the one place I wanted to be wasn't the one place I needed to be. Mayor Brown was where he needed to be on Friday night.

It's a good time now to say that the people of Auckland are really in my thoughts at present.  

Linda and I happened to fly in there two days after the big Christchurch earthquake and were both struck by the work being done in our biggest city to support the people of Christchurch, starting with lines of volunteers waiting to greet and help refugees coming off the plane to stalls and collectors in the streets downtown.  

Any idea that Aucklanders are a separate type of people that don't care about the rest of the country was immediately dispelled. These are our people, and they are hurting, and like the earthquakes, the after-effects of this flood are going to make their lives very hard for a long time to come. Following the extra lockdowns they endured through Covid, they are going to be stressed and worn out. 

Something to remember when greeting any that happen to come down our way in the next wee while for a break.

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