KEY POINTS:
Interest in celebrity culture is world-wide, and it's an element that needs to influence royal commission discussion on the future shape of Auckland's local government and leadership.
Do we want a celebrity to run the city? Do we want a "mover and shaker" working for us at the Town Hall?
Do we want to elect one person to deliver on the vision for the future, keep a tight rein on the ever-increasing number of city bureaucrats, keep costs down and keep the city moving?
Take all incumbents out of the frame, and think future.
Does Greater Auckland need one committed executive in charge, attracted by a great opportunity, and kept honest by quality scrutiny and accountability systems? What about all the major urban areas of New Zealand?
I have often thought that legal clarification of the mayor's role would resolve some of the problems with power-hungry deputy mayors, councillors and chief executives (CEOs), and better provide for local leadership responsibilities.
At present, the law considers the mayor simply "chairperson" of the council. This is the "primus inter pares" (first among equals) situation, and leaves mayoral authority constrained by convention and tradition.
Now, as we observe citizens deserting local democracy in droves (two-thirds not voting in local elections), and the failure of councils to deliver on the requirements of the 2002 Local Government Act, we could consider a new option - the "strong mayor" model found in many cities elsewhere.
This could mean one mayor for Greater Auckland, as chief executive, with councillors transferred to one assembly with no separate Auckland Regional Council.
As well, I'm thinking that school boards are the most local level of participatory democracy and largely effective.
They could be the basis of a new structural neighbourhood framework with extended responsibilities, replacing community boards and linked with the Greater City Assembly.
We need new thinking, as well as some global mining to develop a local solution.
It's a pity we can't clone Pericles of the Golden Age of Athens from almost 2500 years ago. Elected city "mayor" by men of property, he taxed the rich and leveraged other funds to build the Parthenon and develop the Acropolis.
He promoted the arts and literature, and fostered democracy. He provided jobs for the unemployed and poor in the process and lifted their spirits by ensuring Athens was known as the world's cultural capital.
Pericles was an orator who challenged aristocratic power and "divine rights" to rule. He was scorned as a "populist" by his opponents, and was the first given the title "First Citizen".
To quote Plutarch: Pericles "was able generally to lead the people along, with their own wills and consents, by persuading and showing them what was to be done; and sometimes, too, urging and pressing them forward extremely against their will, he made them, whether they would or no, yield submission to what was for their advantage".
Looking backwards, many of the world's movers and shakers have been strong local leaders - the princes of Europe's principalities or "City States", the Ottoman empire's "little emperors", India's local Mughal princes, China's Mandarins, Japan's Shoguns all local rulers administering laws and justice at the local level.
The role and title of mayor grew from this - the "majores palatii". By the 19th century, mayors were the constitutional "monarchs" and "prime ministers" for their cities.
At the time, as democracy unfolded, the "Father of Sociology" Max Weber warned of the need for bureaucratic control to be countered by political power and authority to ensure balance in governance - "the antidemocratic autocracy of bureaucracy".
More recently historian and JFK adviser Arthur Schlesinger jnr referred to the central conundrum of democracy: a degree of good faith is required to devise a means of reconciling a strong purposeful President [an elected leader] with equally strong and purposeful forms of democratic control.
For local democracy, is a strong mayor the answer?
RUDY GIULIANI
He has now missed out on the United States presidency, but as New York mayor in front of the world he calmed a city stunned by the twin towers disaster.
Giuliani kept a sign on his desk as a mayoral role reminder - "I'm responsible" and he was - democratically in a position backed by 350 years of history and a "home rule" charter.
Giuliani's still acclaimed for cleaning up the Big Apple, and the zero tolerance concept of fronting up to graffiti and vandalism from the earliest signs has been exported throughout the world.
His style was attention to even the smallest details.
He ended up running New York like a fiefdom, trying to hobble or disestablish organisations which counterbalanced the mayor's powers, and unsuccessfully tried to extend his last term. This proved the value of term limitation.
This year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to a new federal law intended to modernise voting systems - the Help America Vote Act - and announced he wants a new elections system to end "party bosses directly calling the shots". He also wants a charter review to assess how well city government has functioned.
KEN LIVINGSTONE
Maggie Thatcher's Government chopped London's mayoralty in 1984 - after an 800- year history - it is said because the role had become too powerful. Then a public referendum called it back.
"Red Ken" Livingstone was elected the first mayor after the restoration in 2000 and against Labour Government interference, and again in 2004.
Livingstone is seeking re-election on May 1 in what is being labelled a "gladiatorial" contest with Conservative candidate Boris Johnson, and the polls are worth following.
A low voter turn-out of the typical 40 per cent is expected.
The mayoral voting system is a form of proportional representation known as the "supplementary vote", giving voters a first and second preference vote to ensure the winning candidate has majority support. All British EU and Commonwealth citizen residents of Greater London over 18 are entitled to vote.
The mayor has 32 boroughs or "townships" in his patch and a budget of 11 billion ($27.4 billion) (yes!). He is charged with promoting London as "the world's most international city", and to "speak up" for London.
His brief includes education, culture, social services and consumer protection, as well as standard infrastructure responsibilities.
In 2006, added to his list of duties was the requirement to produce strategies for housing (and a housing investment plan), "learning and skills", climate change and energy, waste management, water action, culture and health inequalities.
He is required to consult widely, including with the London boroughs, business, the voluntary sector, the ethnic and faith communities and other interested bodies, and work his way through the checks and balances of scrutiny by the Greater London Assembly, an annual "State of London" debate, and a twice-yearly People's Question Time.
Red Ken's transport strategy and radical congestion remedies are now recognised internationally.
The UK Commission for Local Democracy favoured "executive mayors" for all cities - to strengthen the local side of the central-local government relationship, to reinvigorate local democracy, to strengthen community leadership and reinforce internal leadership, and to change the impact of party politics.
JIM SOORLEY
Brisbane's former Lord Mayor Jim Soorley (1991-2003) has been credited with transforming Australia's third largest city.
Lord Jim's efforts included the promotion of cafe society, inner-urban redevelopment, a network of cycle and walking tracks, and the successful city river festivals.
His transport initiatives included the CityCat ferries, the Busway system and the Inner City Bypass, while infrastructure improvements included sewage treatment, and a city-wide recycling programme.
Brisbane re-elected Liberal Campbell Newman to a second term as mayor on March 15.
The system is optional preferential, with voting compulsory.
Voter turnout was 82 per cent, a drop of 5 per cent on the previous elections in an electorate of more than 600,000.
These are examples of the "strong mayor" structure involving directly elected mayors with formal legal authority to control policy and budgets and to appoint staff, while their councils or assemblies have the function of scrutinising the mayors' actions.
New Zealand has the "weak mayor" model, in a councillors-CEO system based on the State Sector Act. No body is given formal scrutiny functions, and the system relies on community participation, openness and transparency to keep the council honest.
The 2002 Local Government legislation required local councils to foster sustainable community wellbeing, with specific reference to economic, as well as environmental, social and cultural factors.
But six years later, there is emerging doubt that they are delivering.
More concerning is the mood that the bureaucrats have taken over, just as Max Weber predicted a century ago. Across New Zealand, CEOs have increased staff numbers by 30 per cent and payroll costs by 40 per cent in the past five years.
In Auckland, Rodney Hide says almost a third of rates go on paying staff. "It's the same wherever you look. Over-staffed and over-managed. Eight councils, seven mayors, and 6000 bureaucrats" He didn't add: "Eight CEOs" ...
We need to fix it. Think future. One throne? In the public spotlight. Elected.
* Margaret Evans is a former mayor of Hamilton (1989-98) and has held national and international local government roles.
