Back in March 2024, The Spinoff exclusively revealed<\/a> Auckland mayor Wayne Brown had been peppering Auckland Transport chief executive Dean Kimpton with texts whining about road cones. \u201cWTF is this. Dugan St,\u201d he\u2019d messaged in a council lunch break. \u201cThis is outside Countdown in Wiilamson Rd , Ponsonby,\u201d he said during what was likely a trip home: \u201cWho approved it? How much did AT charge, answers please, Wayne. PS we need a meeting soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, 22 months later, The Spinoff can also exclusively reveal the texts haven\u2019t abated. A new trove of messages obtained under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act shows that if anything, they\u2019ve become more insistent. Brown\u2019s simmering cone rage is starting to boil over and the studiously polite man on the receiving end at last seems to be launching a fightback.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new texts start where the old ones left off. In April 2024, Brown messages Kimpton a picture of Albert Street littered with cones. \u201cSeriously what game are they playing? How many cones can you fit into Albert street ? Waste of $,\u201d he writes. \u201cIf it\u2019s Albert St it\u2019s CRL,\u201d Kimpton replies.<\/p>\n The pictorial evidence keeps piling up in Kimpton\u2019s phone. \u201cCorner Wellesley and Nelson been there for months get rid of it,\u201d the mayor texts, along with a picture of cones, a few weeks later.<\/p>\n The dynamic is almost always the same. Brown is blunt and grammatically creative. Kimpton is formal and impassive. It\u2019s encapsulated in an exchange a month later. \u201cYou need to walk to work with me to see how AT could do better, Wayne,\u201d texts the mayor in June 2024. \u201cThat would be a great idea! How does this Friday or next Monday morning suit? Is 7.30am a good time or earlier?\u201d comes Kimpton\u2019s enthusiastic reply. Brown doesn\u2019t appear to have texted back.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead the conversation returns to familiar ground. \u201cCompletely unacceptable TTM (temporary traffic management) at lower Ponsonby Road,\u201d begins a rebuke from the mayor from later in the year. Kimpton\u2019s appeasements reduce the ire, but never quell it completely. \u201cGood message last night but the photo is this morning, new cones,\u201d says Brown on February 13, 2025. It\u2019s unclear what message Brown is referring to, as nothing from February 12 was included in the cache released to The Spinoff.<\/p>\n Texts keep coming in a play-by-play commentary on the city centre\u2019s snarl-ups. \u201cUnion street right hand light needs changing and TTM works on Wellington St mean a jam on both.\u201d \u201cThey have now blocked up the left lane. Cars bank up on Victoria St.\u201d \u201cVincent St closed one side. Fallen road cones. No works in the weekend. So much for AT getting rid of unnecessary cones.\u201d<\/p>\n As this goes on, something seems to break inside Kimpton. In January 2025, the mayor grouses about works outside the Sky Tower on Victoria Street, concluding that \u201cnot doing a lot of their recent stuff would save capex and salaries that could go to better things or stay in ratepayer pockets\u201d. Kimpton responds with a long message defending AT, arguing it generally delivers good value for money and noting it benchmarks well against other transport agencies including the NZTA. \u201cOverall, I think we do pretty well, notwithstanding we can always improve,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe Kimpton\u2019s drunk on the intoxicating elixir of AT\u2019s impending doom<\/a>, but there\u2019s a hint of defiance to his messages after that first rebuke. By March, he\u2019s lost the mayor\u2019s number.<\/p>\n \u201cHi Wayne, we never promised to solve all in an instant,\u201d begins a response to another complaint. Then finally, an exchange over a h\u012bkoi supporting workers\u2019 rights on T\u0101maki Drive<\/a> launches with Kimpton not picking up Brown\u2019s call, then explaining that police have powers to close roads.\u00a0<\/p>\n AT is set to lose most of its powers at some point this year<\/a>, retaining only its responsibility for running public transport. Kimpton has been tight-lipped on what he plans to do next, only telling The Spinoff<\/a> his role is fundamentally changing and he\u2019s considering his future. But if he\u2019s writing a pros and cons list for staying versus going down with the ship, it\u2019s easy to imagine \u201cdiminished volume of cone complaints\u201d occupying a high ranking when it comes to the potential benefits of a new role. With him gone, the mayor will likely need a new pressure valve for his bouts of rage. Something specially designed to field his most burning complaints. You could call it a hotline.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have another trove of the Auckland mayor\u2019s texts to Auckland Transport chief executive Dean Kimpton. If anything,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[53219,492,139829,111,43,139,69,135,139830,18130],"class_list":["post-236684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland-transport","tag-comments-enabled","tag-dean-kimpton","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-road-cones","tag-wayne-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are quite a few more.<\/p>\n
New attitude who dis?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll get right on that boss.<\/p>\n