If the old John Banks was standing for the Super City mayoralty he would be slagging the new John Banks for financial recklessness.
In his early days in office, Banks sold the council's stock of pensioner housing and half its airport shares to eliminate debt, which he regarded as a financial burden on hard-working homeowners.
Six years later, Banks has cranked up council debt from $322 million to $867 million to fund projects like the Art Gallery and Aotea Square upgrades.
The debt issue is an example of how Banks has changed his stripes between his two terms of office in 2001-2004 and 2007-2010. He spent the 2004-2007 term under a "long, cold shower".
What is clear is that Banks, who once confessed to being "arrogant, rude and pushy" in his first term, has become more of a figurehead in his second.
Cultivating the Banksie image forged on talkback radio, Banks set out on the 37th mayoralty of Auckland City like a bull in a china shop after consigning former National Party colleague Christine Fletcher's "consensus" mayoralty to history.
Former National Party Finance Minister Sir William Birch was brought in to take a "yard broom" to the city finances.
This led to the sale of pensioner houses and cast a dark shadow over city hall.
A bid to host the V8 supercar race in central Auckland revealed his bullying side and failure to consult others.
An ugly moment occurred when he threw a hissy fit because Auckland Regional Council chairwoman Gwen Bull had the temerity to call him John to his face. It was "condescending", he told her, demanding she use Mayor Banks instead.
But Banks' biggest mission, and ultimately his undoing, was the eastern highway. He saw himself as a cheerleader for the roading lobby, telling it as he saw it, refusing to listen to communities and opposing views.
In a memorable radio interview, high profile lawyer John Haigh, QC, calmly, but clinically, shot through every argument Banks could summon on the issue.
Despite the opposition and applying sound political judgment, Banks remained committed to building the eastern highway right up to election day in 2004 when a voter backlash led to a resounding victory for businessman and novice politician Dick Hubbard.
His first term did produce some runs on the board. He secured Westhaven Marina in public ownership, started liquor bans in the CBD, chased boy racers out of town, re-sanded Kohimarama beach and began the process of upgrading Queen St. Rates were kept down.
Losing the mayoralty hurt Banks. Badly. But as the Dick Hubbard-Bruce Hucker double act self-destructed, friends and political colleagues of Banks sniffed the breeze and sensed an opening.
Not for the old polarising Banks, but Banks with a softer image and more pragmatic policies crafted into a new persona. And not just for the 39th mayoralty - Banks' ultimate goal was always to be the first mayor of the Super City.
After signing the visitors' book in the mayoral office of the Town Hall with "I'm back", Banks has been showcasing his new identity to a befuddled electorate. He maintains his 2004 defeat had more to do with style than substance and still places leadership as his top credential.
City Vision leader Richard Northey has described Banks' record as spotty and incomplete. His C&R deputy David Hay has praised his inclusive and clear leadership and ability to resolve a stalemate.
Banks' newfound interest in heritage has extended to standing firm on retaining and refurbishing the century-old cargo sheds on Queens Wharf and a pet project to complete restoration of the Pah Homestead to house the James Wallace art collection.
Contrast this with the old Banks, who in 2004 refused to stop a developer who wanted to demolish the stately Edwardian Paykel homestead in Parnell's St Stephens Ave.
He will never admit it, but Banks inherited a huge financial windfall from big rates increases under the Hubbard council to the tune of about $90 million in extra income per year, enabling his council to go ahead with projects like the Aotea Square and Art Gallery upgrades.
Coupled with a big borrowing programme, this has allowed him to deliver on his promise of "affordable progress" and hold rate rises to 5.1 per cent, 2 per cent and 1.9 per cent this term.
But just as his first term was not all bad, his second term has not always been a bed of roses. There have been embarrassing backdowns on closing suburban bars before midnight and, this week, the hard-line enforcement of bus-lane rules. Controversy still swirls around moving Monte Cecilia School to expand a park by the same name at a cost of about $30 million.
Then there is stormwater. During the 2007 election, Banks tore into Hubbard for pumping "human body waste" longer than necessary on to eastern bays beaches. This was based on papers showing the Hubbard council put back the environmental clean-up by six years.
Banks promised to improve beaches and water quality, but once elected he slashed the stormwater budget from $35 million, rising to $46 million in 2016, to $22.5 million a year.
This illustrates a conundrum for voters as they weigh up Banks for the Super City mayoralty. Expelled after his first term, Banks has bounced back a better pupil, albeit still prone to political posturings and contradictions.
TERM ONE
The singular disaster of Banks' first mayoral term was the ill-fated eastern highway. The project ballooned in cost from $460 million to nearly $4 billion. When 11,000 leaflets with a computer-generated image of the highway along Tamaki Drive were delivered in Parnell, Remuera, Meadowbank and Orakei and 750 people packed the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell to oppose the plans, the highway was history.
TERM TWO
The reformed mayor has discovered a passion for heritage buildings. He cut through a legal minefield to create demolition controls for about 3000 heritage properties in the city's leafy suburbs. The fact Banks stopped officers signing away protection rights at the 11th hour heralded a genuine commitment to heritage way beyond his comfort zone of protecting property rights.
No more Mr Nasty
Mayor John Banks. Photo / Greg Bowker
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