Who will stand for Auckland’s powerless local boards?

by David Clendon

Would you apply for a job when you didn’t know exactly

1. how much you would be paid?
2. how many hours you’d be expected to work?
3. what tasks you’d be responsible for?
4. what resources or authority you’d have to achieve your responsibilities?

Sadly, this is the situation confronting people who are considering whether to stand for the Local Boards of the new Auckland SuperCity.

Why does it matter? It matters because the new Local Boards that will be created in October, 2010 will be large, and will  provide a crucial layer of local representation for Aucklanders. You can see the size and shape of each local board here. The biggest, Te Irirangi, has a population of 128,100. That is more than the population of Dunedin or Palmerston North.

Because of this, and because of the very low representation that Aucklanders will have at a council level (one councillor per 70,000 people) it is very important that the Local Boards have great Board members with the abilities, authority, and resources to manage local Auckland issues well.

Unfortunately, the third Auckland Council bill which was released for consultation by Rodney Hide in December, 2009 did little to clarify the powers the Local Boards will have. And the discussion document on the Local Board’s powers released by the Auckland Transition Agency in February is equally vague.

In particular, there is a real lack of clarity in the document about how the Local Boards will be able to work with or influence the Council Controlled Organizations (CCOs) that will be responsible for Auckland’s transport, water and many other services.

Unless the Local Boards’ powers are clearly defined in law there is a real risk they will end up as fall guys for the council. They will take complaints and advice from residents but they will have little real power to resolve problems. Instead their powers will be limited to preparing a local plan every 3 years and dealing with some very minor local issues such as graffiti.

The government must set the local boards’ powers in legislation

To avoid this it’s important that the government sets the powers for local boards in legislation. They still have time to do this (just) as part of the third Auckland Council Bill which will be coming up for it’s second reading soon.

I was on the Select Committee for this Bill and many submitters not only stated that they believed the government should define the Local Boards responsibilities and powers in legislation but also suggested what they thought those powers should be. Unsurprisingly, the most detailed suggestions came from the local councils and community boards in Auckland who are, after all, the experts on this topic.

Rodney Hide has tried to wriggle out of defining the powers of the Local Board members by saying that instead they should be established by the first Mayor of the SuperCity after he takes power in October. But how would you feel if you applied for a job and then after you got it they changed the conditions on you?

It will be difficult for the new Mayor of Auckland to make substantive increases to the powers that the Local Boards have after he is elected. There is also a real risk that, unless the powers of the Local Boards are clearly defined in legislation, a hostile Mayor or council could try to reduce their powers even further – thus strengthening their own powers.

Either way, the lack of clarity from the government is not good enough. And the candidates that such a poorly defined job attracts won’t be good enough for Auckland either.