KEY POINTS:
Auckland's seven city and district councils and the regional council all have very different visions of how the region should be governed by 2010.
The deadline for submissions on the future governance of Auckland is 4pm tomorrow, and councils are bickering over one another's plans for reshaping the region.
The councils finalised their submissions on Friday. They range from little change to the status quo to radical proposals by the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council for a single super-city.
Waitakere City was the last council out of the blocks, with a plan to reduce the seven territorial councils to four.
That brought a retort from Rodney Mayor Penny Webster that Waitakere was trying to pinch its treasures, such as the Muriwai gannet colony.
But Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey said his council was trying to survive annihilation under Auckland City's super-city plan.
At the southern end of Auckland region, Papakura District Council has run a slick public relations campaign to ward off allcomers, including a plan by Manukau City Council to absorb the Papakura and Franklin Districts.
Franklin wants to escape the clutches of metropolitan Auckland and become a council in the rural-based Waikato.
Another hot topic is whether Auckland should have a lord mayor and, if so, how he or she would be elected.
Auckland City favours a mayor elected at large, but some councillors believe this will result in a sporting or television personality or a former national politician becoming the leader of 1.3 million Aucklanders.
The Auckland Regional Council, on which councillors elect a chairman, wants the super-council to select the super-mayor.
The other area in which councils differ is grassroots democracy.
Most favour a continuation of some kind of community boards, preferably with more power and money to look after local issues.
