Brian Rudman: Former mayors in the mix but most well off the radar

Mike Williams should be hoping the ballot paper will be randomised. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Pity the poor voters for the Waitemata District Health Board. Somehow they're expected to make an informed choice and pick a board of seven from a field of 33 candidates.

Given the advantage candidates with a name beginning at the top end of the alphabet have in such a free-for-all, you have to feel sorry for former Labour Party president Mike Williams, who will be listed dead last on the ballot paper.

That's unless the board has had a change of heart from last election and plans to join Manukau DHB as one of the few in the country to randomise its ballot paper. Labels aren't much help. Nearly a third of the candidates haven't registered any descriptive tag at all, and nine are claiming to be "independent".

One, Judy Lawley, has rather over-egged that boast, by proclaiming herself "totally independent".

I guess voters can always fall back on name recognition, which gives an advantage to veteran stagers such as Max Abbott, Ivan Dunn, Sandra Coney, Allison Rowe, Wyn Hoadley and Andrew Williams (yes, that one, obviously seeking a consolation prize if he doesn't get the big prize). Of course, in that he's not alone.

The other Mr Williams, for example, is also looking for a seat on the local licensing trust and the Henderson-Massey Local Board.

Let's not forget veteran journalist-turned-peripatetic local politician Pat Booth, who from my quick perusal of the more than 540 candidate names could have a thing or two to impart on the subject of healthy living, having reached the venerable age of 81.

But he's a spring chicken compared to Assid Corban, 85, who became a Henderson Borough councillor in 1956 and later mayor and is seeking a spot on the Henderson-Massey Board, and to former Labour deputy prime minister Bob Tizard, 86, who is seeking another term on the Auckland DHB.

Mr Corban is one of at least 11 former or present mayors and Mr Tizard one of at least six current or former MPs seeking local office, and as one approaching oldie status myself, I think there's a lot to be said for experience. Of course, there are some older politicians returning to the fray who I'd hoped we'd seen the last of. But that's not to do with their longevity.

Anyway, the great thing about democracy is that there's still room for newcomers as well. Among them I spot Neelam Choudary, the Labour Party activist who brought down ageing lothario Richard Worth as National's Epsom MP 18 months ago after complaining about sleazy emails to her. She's seeking a seat on the Howick Local Board.

Getting back to the oldies, the Year One brigade see the present revolution as the perfect chance to clear out the old and bring in the new. Now that would really scare me.

At least with old politicians, we know where they're coming from, and just as importantly, they know what the bureaucrats get up to, where they bury skeletons, and how they try to control the show.

In a new structure, where an array of powerful so-called "council- controlled organisations" will run 75 per cent of council business, some wily and suspicious old political hands will be no bad thing.

What does stand out in the lists of those seeking election to high office is the absence of those besuited shroud-wavers who triggered off this whole revolution in the first place.

Where are the captains of industry - or even the sergeant majors - who endlessly whined that Auckland, and therefore the country, was doomed unless the local governance stables were cleansed?

Given their narrow business and roadcentric visions, I'm rather relieved they haven't fronted up.

But we shouldn't kid ourselves they've gone back to their factories to do something useful like creating jobs.

More likely they're sitting around in their gentlemen's clubs, divvying up who is going to end up on which of the boards of the new council-controlled organisations.

If there was one measure above all others I would use in picking my favoured mayoral candidate, it would to select the one I thought best able to make those organisations truly council controlled.