Brian Rudman: Power sharing still a big question

Those of us seeking a clearer picture of the division of power in the new Super City won't find it in the third Auckland governance reform bill unveiled by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide yesterday.

Both the big outstanding power-sharing conundrums - the relationship between the local boards and the Auckland Council, and that between the council, as owner, and the powerful new council-controlled organisations - remain anyone's guess.

Mr Hide says the debate continues, that he has an open mind and is looking forward to the submissions now being invited.

In the meantime, the secretive Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) is busy drawing up its preferred blueprints of power.

Grazing through the latest 24 Super City Cabinet papers to be released yesterday a picture emerges of the tussle going on within officialdom on these issues, particularly over the relationship between the CCOs and the local politicians.

Department of Internal Affairs bureaucrats argue that the new council needs sufficient levers of power so they can instruct, when they consider necessary, the CCOs to follow council policy. They worry that the council will not have "sufficient levers within existing frameworks to enable it to hold CCOs to account". ATA, which is headed by former Watercare CEO Mark Ford, argues that giving Auckland Council the ability to direct a CCO to give effect to council policy, or even to request operational or performance data, would lead to an unwarranted level of micro-management.

DIA officials note the likelihood of "a number of large CCOs, some of which will be responsible for delivering key services to the people of Auckland" and argue that while the board of a CCO is accountable for the day-to-day operation and performance of the organisation, it is "also accountable to the Auckland Council, as the shareholder ..."

They add that "in turn, Auckland Council is accountable to the ratepayers and citizens of Auckland ... including how it exercises its shareholder interest and responsibilities in its CCOs. The Auckland Council has to have sufficient levers to enable it to hold CCOs to account".

Mr Hide says the Government is open-minded on this and awaits public input. He's likely to get plenty, particularly from politicians. Already three large CCOs have been approved - Watercare Services Ltd, the Regional Transport Authority and a Waterfront Development Agency.

A further four are approved in principle, one covering economic development, tourism and events, and others for property holdings and development; for major regional facilities and for council investments. If all of these are to be off limits to political input, except during the formulation of the 10-year plan once a decade, it doesn't leave much reason for wanting to be a politician.

The same issue still confronts anyone contemplating standing for one of the 19 local boards being formed to keep the "local" in Auckland politics.

Vagueness continues to reign as to what powers these boards will have. In a paper released yesterday, Mr Hide calls them a "new form of local government with more power than the former community boards". Given the puny powers the community boards had, that isn't saying very much. All we still know is that the local boards will make decisions about "purely local matters" and act as a sort of informal local information conduit to the council proper.

The power they get will basically consist of the responsibilities left over after the mayor and councillors have decided what they want to grab for themselves. There is talk of "principles set out in legislation" governing the functions of the local boards. But hanging over this, is the overriding power of the big council to control anything it deems of regional importance. Which, at a pinch, could include anything from the placement and design of bus shelters to the number of liquor stores in your local shopping centre.

This issue has also been handed over to the transition agency, who will "make an initial allocation of the activities for which the local boards will be responsible".

These have to be in place by November 1, 2010, so that the newly elected boards will have a guide book to work from. But there's nothing to stop a mayor and councillors rewriting this once in power.

Meanwhile, the Local Government Commission has been given the job of marriage guidance counsellor in possible demarcation disputes between the mayor and councillors and the boards. It should start looking for Auckland premises now.