Reporter: Wayne, should the next mayor of Auckland effectively be a project manager?
... that's what you seem to be describing yourself as.
Brown: It is a project.
Running... if you don't treat running a council as a project
you'll get snaffled up by all the detail on the sides, you know?
Reporter: But you've talked about infastructure, engineering, you've talked about...
Brown: What do people expect, from their rates? That's what they talk about.
What is the major chunk of the rate pay spent on?
It doesn't go on libraries and libraries aren't a problem
I've got loads of things I think are a problem
some things like the libraries and parks and reserves are quite good.
Reporter: You have talked about 'dopey projects' though.
What 'dopey projects' would you stop as Mayor?
Brown: Well some of the ones are 'dopey' already and you have to finish them quickly.
The CRL should not have been done the way they did it
if they were going to do it.
So it's not so much... sometimes you get a good project and they come up with a 'dopey' solution.
And often that's because the people who give a final say of this
have never been in a situation where they have to make a decision like it before.
Reporter: you've talked about the CCOs, the council agencies
as though bureaucrats are deciding projects
that the politicians haven't decided on.
So what projects are they that the politicians aren't in favour of?
Brown: Well I think this whole sudden kerfuffle about charging for people to catch on a bus way
would be a good example.
Apparently- Reporter: Charging for park and ride?
Brown: Yeah, but apparently it's been the council.
But those things should be initiated in council and the CCOs should respond
rather than the other way around.
We need to initiate these things.
The 700 million dollar cycleway over the bridge-
would be hard to bloody find a dopier project than that anywhere.
Reporter: If you put that project aside, you also talked about...
Brown: But that's the thing, the same that people that produce that
produce that again and again and again
Reporter: But you also talked about things as though Wellington was deciding things for Auckland
that Auckland didn't want.
Brown: Well that was one of them for a start Reporter: That was one of them
Reporter: What were the others? Brown: Well...
Let's look at the plan to have the...
Light Rail
Right-o?
That was never initiated by anyone in Auckland.
Reporter: It was started by Auckland transport.
They wanted to have it running by 2017.
Brown: The Prime Minister kicked it off actually, she liked the idea of it.
I think she saw a brochure for it somewhere.
But... if they'd made Reporter: Light Rail started in 2015 inside Auckland transport
Brown: Well... you also have to be ale to be flexible and be able to stop and think about things when sudden things happen.
Now, at the same time
without reference to the Auckland council,
politicians have decided that we are going to have 3x3 storey houses
on every section around Auckland.
So much for the densification down Dominion Road.
Secondly, having seen the damage to businesses on Albert Street of the CRL
you would have to revisit....
they are just shoving it under the ground, aye? The solution to that.
The solution, is this the best solution?
Reporter: Away from infatructure
what would you do to try and improve the lives and economic lot
of the poorer communities in south and west Auckland?
Brown: Well I am involved in South Auckland through... the business association
Reporter: But what policies would you pursue?
Brown: Well I think first of all
getting some money out of...
What big chunk of money is sitting there uncollected?
The port.
Right you get in 400 million dollars, that's 400 million that we don't...
Reporter: How would you spend it to improve the lives of south and west Auckland?
Brown: The best way to improve at the moment is to take any pressure any incoming costs for them.
These people are struggling,
their houses have gone up ridiculously without them even expecting or knowing it.
And with that the rates
and a lot of them have got mortgages
and with that the cost...
So we've done a lot of research
and backpocket issues are what are worrying them.
Reporter: Have you looked at the Koi Tū from Sir Peter Gluckman and his team
that has suggested looking two generations ahead
the priorities need to be social, with infastructure last?
Brown: That's on the assumption that you've got good infastructure in the first place
and I looked at that and it came up with the whole
bunch of nice sounding things
but you could not identify what they were.
And it's great about being able to solve problems which will take place 20 years after you've died.
We've got quite a few problems here and you and I are expecting to be alive during these ones.
So yeah... I'd love to have been paid a lot of money to do something for 50 years in the future
You'll never be proved wrong.