Mayors agree to stop fighting and negotiate

Auckland's Mayors have stopped trading insults to try to reach consensus on how to inject more democracy into the Government's Super City model.

The main antagonists - Auckland City Mayor John Banks and North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams - have agreed to sit around the same table at a mayoral forum meeting at the Auckland Town Hall today to find common ground.

Over Easter, Mr Banks mistakenly sent a text to Mr Williams calling him a lunatic. Mr Williams responded by calling Mr Banks a lone sheep.

Mr Williams and other Mayors also took potshots at the Government over its plans for the Super City.

The region's Mayors, with the exception of Mr Banks, are particularly unhappy about the Government's decision to reject the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance's recommendation for six local councils under the Super City council and create 20 to 30 local boards.

The local boards will have limited responsibilities and will not be able to set rates, hire staff or hear and decide resource consents.

Mr Banks has until now refused to sit down with his colleagues if they were wedded to patch protection, the status quo and pork barrelling.

Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey has acted as a peace broker and succeeded in bringing the warring factions together. All going well, the Mayors will find an accord to take to Local Government Minister Rodney Hide when he comes to Auckland tomorrow to meet them.

But in a bizarre twist, Rodney Mayor Penny Webster, who will chair today's meeting as head of the mayoral forum, said she would not attend tomorrow's meeting. The former Act MP wants a one-on-one meeting with Act leader Mr Hide to press Rodney's concerns.

"It's all very well to be talking together, and that's important, but the time for mass meetings is past," she said. Mr Banks yesterday said he was quietly confident a sound and sensible proposal could be found to convince the Government to strengthen grassroots democracy before legislation was introduced to Parliament.

"What we can't do is to try and reinvent the wheel that was in place with the royal commission proposal [for six local councils] in any shape or form.

"It's my view that the Government is not in a position to be pushed back."

Mr Williams said there were still a lot of questions about how the 20 to 30 local boards would work, such as the interaction between staff in places such as the North Shore and local boards.

If the model was found to be flawed, then the Government needed to revisit the royal commission's recommendations for local councils, he said.

Manukau Mayor Len Brown said there was a significant body of concern and, in some instances, anger about the Government model.

"Over the next few weeks it would be useful for the minister and the Government to listen very carefully to what people are saying.

"My hope is that once this change is in place we don't keep on tinkering around with Auckland governance. This is it for the next 50 years and let's do it properly," Mr Brown said.

Meanwhile, Ngati Whatua are holding a hui at Orakei marae today to discuss the Government's rejection of Maori seats for the super Auckland Council.

TOWN HALL TALKS
* Auckland's warring mayors have put aside their differences to discuss the super city.
* Mayors meet at Auckland Town Hall today to find common ground.
* All going well, they will meet Local Government Minister Rodney Hide tomorrow.
* Rodney Mayor Penny Webster has broken ranks and wants a separate meeting with Mr Hide.