KEY POINTS:
Papakura, population 46,000, is small enough to be accessible while large enough to be sustainable, says the local district council.
The logical extension of this is that big cities such as Auckland City and Manukau need to be broken into smaller units, the Papakura District Council told the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance yesterday.
About 30 supporters, including councillors, wore green T-shirts proclaiming "Save Papakura" at a public hearing in the town to highlight the case for stronger regional government and accessible local-level democracy.
But unlike several other submitters calling for a two-tier system made up of a super city and community boards, Papakura District believes the local-tier councils should be autonomous and able to set rates so they can be accountable at the ballot box.
Deputy Mayor Peter Goldsmith said the current community board structure was a form of "pseudo-democracy" that gave the illusion of democratic representation but, in fact, operated only as a filter between the community and actual decision-makers on the council.
A Greater Auckland Council would be unwieldy, unresponsive and inefficient. International research found no evidence of reduced costs as the result of amalgamation, Mr Goldsmith said.
Big business, a strong advocate for the super city model, would be part of a small group with access to the democratic leaders. Power would flow to council staff, and the chief executive in particular, he said.
Papakura had had a chequered history as a result of outsourcing most of its functions in the 90s.
Chief executive Theresa Stratton said the organisation had been rebuilt by bringing back the "thinking functions" of planning and policy-making and continuing to contract out the "doing functions" of road and pipe maintenance work and managing recreational and aquatic facilities.
Mr Goldsmith said that in the "out-sourcing years" the council lost touch with its community, but this had been addressed in the past few years.
One of the most successful relations was with mana whenua through a forum where members of five iwi and hapu groups met monthly to discuss matters of joint interest.
Maori representatives also had direct input on the council's 10-year plan.
Dennis Ngataki, of the Ngati Tamaoho Trust, said the forum model had been of "immense value in supporting us as tangata whenua".
"This arrangement we have with Papakura is quite unique and the first of its kind. We strongly advocate for it to continue on. We would like Papakura District Council to remain unchanged."
Another submitter, Bishop McWatt, said: "The problem of Auckland's governance is not so much a matter of structure as a division of powers and responsibility. It needs rationalising.
"The present Auckland Regional Council is not comprehensive enough in its powers to deal with regional concerns. The present city councils do not enhance local support or empowerment." The result was voter apathy and making once-vibrant local communities, such as Manurewa and Papatoetoe, run down, Mr McWatt said.
Papakura resident Michael Talbot suggested the commission examine the recall mechanism in California, where a voter petition can lead to fresh elections.
