Andrew Williams: Super City a wolf in sheep's clothing

Opinion

A former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, was asked for his views on the re-election chances of the incumbent Republican President. He smiled and said: "Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me."

That summed up what so many people were thinking over a myriad issues affecting the political future of the President. Cuomo delivered a powerful call to action to the millions disaffected with the Administration's policies and performance.

That little pearl of down-home wisdom neatly sums up the attitude of many thousands of Aucklanders toward the new Auckland Super City and those who are forcing it upon them. The Herald on Sunday reported this week that a recent poll "found 56.9 per cent of Aucklanders would choose to remain with the existing eight councils, while 43.1 per cent would opt for change". Two-thirds said Aucklanders had been ignored and almost 71 per cent thought the changes had been rushed.

These days we seldom see Government ministers running around town, pumped with self-confidence, proclaiming "one mayor, one council, one voice", or conveniently accusing bickering councils of stealing the city's birthright. That false mantra has largely served its purpose, to provide cover for the most audacious centralisation of power in our civic history. The executive mayoralty and the new Auckland Council were enacted so fast the ink had hardly dried on the legislation, rammed through under urgency with minimal consultation. Strike one.

Further distance from the electors was assured with the creation of a series of corporate businesses, bearing the misnomer "council-controlled organisations", to take care of water and wastewater, transport and roads, the waterfront, economic development, tourism and events, property and development, all regional facilities such as stadiums, museums and the zoo, and council investments such as the airport and port.

A subcommittee of elected councillors, under the watchful eye of an advisory board of yet more business people, will be allowed to set the strategic direction of these companies and sign-off their annual reports. With the exception of the roading and transport executive officers, councillors are prohibited by law from appointment to these company boards. Strike two.

With the top-down takeover complete, nowadays the spin is all about community and inclusion and empowerment. But are we being fooled yet again?

Government ministers promise us the 19 local boards will return local decisions to local people, and "breathe new life into local government" in Auckland. The Auckland Transition Agency will soon publish a discussion document setting out the "role, functions, powers and duties" of local boards. More calming reassurance came in the form of Government promises of "greater community engagement" and "local decisions on local activities" and a promise that "people will be surprised" at the detail of the tasks given to local boards by the agency.

Never mind that back in May the Government's promise that "submissions on a third bill, which will determine the powers of local boards and the council" had morphed by January into "it is impractical for a parliamentary select committee to attempt to undertake the task" of defining the functions of the local boards. Strike three.

However, the "big lie" underneath all the comforting spin is that the local boards represent local government. They do not. The legislation spells out that they are not units of local government but are "unincorporated societies" with no power in their own right. All their power is delegated by the Auckland Council.

Before the 1989 local government restructuring, Auckland had 27 borough councils, each with a mayor and councillors that collected rates to pay for local services, making them directly accountable to residents and ratepayers. Fast forward 20 years and replace them with 19 local boards with no rating base and no direct accountability. Regardless of what the agency deigns to allow the local boards to do, local boards are ultimately beholden to the super council in Queen St, and to the 6000-plus bureaucracy beside it. Electors run a distant second. The sacred compact of direct accountability between ratepayer and rate-spender is broken.

It is broken at two levels - by placing the bulk of civic activity in the hands of appointed boards of council companies, and by placing the rating base in the hands of one mayor and 20 councillors.

Aucklanders have one last chance to wrest control of their city back from the corporate thinkers designing the Super City, by speaking with "one voice" on the third Auckland bill, submissions for which close this week, and by making it clear to the Government that we will not be fooled again. I predict when rates continue to rise, that the lack of genuine democracy for Aucklanders will become intolerable. The 19 local boards will be amalgamated into three or four "cities" that will regain their rating base, restoring direct accountability.

If there are any assets left that have not been privatised meantime, these too will be brought back under the direct control of elected representatives.

How many times are we going to be fooled, before we all say shame on us?

* Andrew Williams is Mayor of North Shore City.