KEY POINTS:
Leadership is a commodity that political scientists and business consultants cannot define, so they content themselves with re-organising the organisations that need it.
We should take this royal commission seriously I suppose.
Auckland doesn't lack leaders; each of its four subcities has one and they are all admirable in their own way. John Banks and Bob Harvey are well known. You wouldn't want to make them dictator but they are both blessed with supreme confidence, charm and drive.
Len Brown and Andrew Williams were elected mayors of Manukau and North Shore last year. Brown is immediately impressive. A modest lawyer, he speaks an inclusive language that I have never heard used as naturally and convincingly.
Williams I have known for a while. He lives nearby and has been an assiduous representative of our local interests. As a young engineer he approached politics with total pragmatism, impatient with officialdom, excoriating its expense and waste, determined to ensure that things get done.
Every election candidate promises those qualities, of course, but watch him; I think he means it.
Already, though, he has discovered the limitations of elected power. Councils can hire and fire only one person, their chief executive, and rely on that person to see that all departments operate as economically as ratepayers desire.
The Williams council's ability to hold its chief executive to account is further limited by the fact the appointee's contract was extended before the election to run beyond the new council's term.
Bear this in mind in coming months when a bigger elected body is said to bring economies of scale. The bigger the organisation the harder it becomes for elected people to contain the staff it says it needs and control its generosity to contractors who know that public money is a soft touch.
Whatever would be saved by reducing the number of elected positions in Auckland is small change beside the natural growth of a united bureaucracy. The city, I think, does need a stronger uniting body, but not at the expense of the four sub-cities and their community boards that I have found fairly responsive.
In our neighbourhood hall the other night the new mayor gave us a preview of his council's submission to the royal commission. North Shore City claims to want stronger government of greater Auckland but its proposals would weaken it.
It suggests only half the overall council should be elected, the other half to be appointed by constituent councils.
"Key decisions" should require a two-thirds majority. This, said the mayor, would strengthen Auckland's government because important decisions would have greater support. He said it with a straight face.
Fatally to my mind, the mayor or chair of this body would not be elected at large. A direct election, said the newly elected mayor, means we would be in danger of getting Jonah Lomu or Judy Bailey.
The same suggestion was reported from an Auckland City Council committee discussion a few nights later. Who says there is not enough collusion among the councils at present?
A Jonah or Judy is the least of their worries. The reason they do not want a popularly elected leader of the whole city is that the position would be keenly contested, attract the lion's share of attention at local elections, and the winner would come in with a clear mandate and probably a majority of supporters to carry it out.
This is exactly what is lacking in Auckland's regional council at present. Its chairman is quietly chosen by the members returned by its constituent cities and districts in lacklustre elections.
Ask 10 Aucklanders today who the current chairman is. I'd be surprised if more than two could tell you. He is a good, conscientious and highly competent character but he does not do what leaders do: get out front, show us he is confident that he knows what needs to be done and convince us it is the right thing to do.
All this talk of re-organisation sounds like a substitute for action.
The royal commission is the result of a great deal of dinner table discussion in Auckland business circles where, when the topic of politics comes up, some arrant nonsense goes down.
Such as the cardinal of faith that forces in Wellington are determined to hold Auckland back.
Wisdom in Wellington has saved Auckland from folly at times - most recently the price the region would have paid Tranz Rail for its lines - but overall, it is national agencies such as Transit NZ that are doing most to develop this city.
Any organisation is only as good as the people who offer to lead it. A united Auckland would attract the same leaders we have now and make the same sort of decisions they already make separately and together.
Those in business circles who want different decisions can get it only by submitting their names for the ballot box. There is no way around it.
