NZ Herald reporting the idea of a Lord Mayor/Executive mayor of Auckland is taking shape in the mind of the Royal Commission. Maybe. The title should definitely not be "Lord".My other idea is that to get Aucklanders to think of their city as a whole they should run the elections for the uber city council in the year we have free at the moment instead of the year of the normal local body elections (where the community boards would be elected only) and not in a general election year.
I also think that (perhaps like London) we could elect (some) councillors at large for the whole of Auckland (rather than from wards as at present) in order to have people focused on the big picture.
I made a submission to the royal commission on Auckland's governance. It's on their web site, I'm happy to say.
ReplyDeleteI was also in favour of an amalgamated Auckland provided it be robustly democratic with at least 5 reps per ward, with up to ten wards, and that they all be elected via the Single Transferable Vote (STV).
If elections were not to be under STV, I opposed amalagamation as the first past the post voting system used in Auckland municipalities today only allows the largest minority to win power while grossly distorting or completely excluding competing minority views. Bear in mind ALL perspectives are - each of them - a minority. There is no "majority".
Without STV, and using first past the post, the only way to ensure adequate and effective local representation is to maintain the present setup of several cities.
Genuine representative democracy is a fundamental requirement for any amalgamation to succeed and be seen as legitimate by voters.
I agree a "lord mayor" would be a stupid title for the mayor of a greater Auckland city.
I'm hearing you. I'm not disagreeing exactly:
ReplyDeleteWhat about?
Auckland metropolitan (as opposed to current Regional) area as:
One city
One council
34-90 community boards constituting 4 Wards: Tangata Whenua,Waitemata, Tamaki, Manukau - last three split roughly into thirds based on population.
Council to be responsible and accountable to the city as a whole
AND
the communities that constitute the City of Auckland.
Each ward guaranteed permanent representation on council, ie.Tangata Whenua will be at the table.
Communities that constitute the 3 big wards will have no more than 33 community boards, with one representative each. Those 33 votes will be allocated out on a population basis should there be less than 33 boards (which there probably will be). The community board itself appoints their Ward Councillor and that ward committee decides how to allocate their three seats at the table. It is a mechanism to make sure that the communities have their concerns and their own local or ward requirements met by someone responsible directly to them. So the ward committee may decide to appoint all of themselves to the council in rotation and spend only 3 months as a councillor - on a worst case scenario. They could appoint for the full term three head-kickers, people who aren't on a board if they felt they would serve the ward and its communities well.
As you can see I haven't really settled on how to best represent the interests of the communities - I'm just recognising that as the residual and primary unit of governance (and perhaps after reform also an operational unit within local government) there needs ought to be transmitted as directly as possible to the council - and that can never be at a city-wide/at-large level.
Some other ideas:
Council=
Mayor - elected at large - highest polling candidate FPP-style.
Deputy Mayor - to be second highest polling candidate if highest polling candidate does not get over 50%, or a person nominated by the highest polling candidate if they have over 50% of vote - to be approved by the full Council.
21 councillors -
11 city-wide representatives elected at large (lists?) ie. like London.
10 community representatives:
1 x Tangata Whenua Ward Representative elected by Tangata Whenua communities (rotating basis option).
3 x Waitemata Ward Representatives elected by Waitemata communities (rotating basis option)
3 x Tamaki Ward Representatives elected by Tamaki communities (rotating basis option)
3 x Manukau Ward Representatives elected by Manukau communities (rotating basis option)
NB: Mayoral and city (at-large) councillors election to be year before normal local body elections.
OK, that's enough hypothesising.
A lot there to reply to. I'm basically happy with any amalgamation configuration that is democratically inclusive - including Tangata Whenua and community Boards.
ReplyDeleteIf the Mayor was to be directly elected, I'd MUCH prefer a preferential voting system (Instant Run-off Voting - IRV) to first past the post. In any democratic context, First Past the Post has to be the worst system one could use. I've seen mayors in Wellington "elected" with less than 20% of the vote.
Deputy Mayor could be problematic if after the top job, wasting time and energy on politicking rather than running the city. Maybe better to let the Council elect the Deputy Mayor.
Excellent ideas, Tim.
I hope you sent your submission to the Royal Commission before their deadline?
ReplyDeleteMine is on their website too. I went much further in proportionality in the election of region-wide councillors and much-beefed up community boards.
My submission is here: http://uroskin.blogspot.com/2008/04/submission-to-royal-commission-on.html