Brian Rudman: Super Mayor's vote just one of 21

Michael Barnett. Photo / Dean Purcell

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett now says he wasn't including John Banks in his remarkable broadside in Monday's Herald against the shortcomings of "the trickle of mayoral aspirants who have declared to date".

All I can say is, if the senior Citizens and Ratepayers politician - ARC deputy chairman - didn't want his political bed-fellow to get hurt in the general salvo, he shouldn't have used a blunderbuss.

Indeed, if you read the piece carefully, Mr Banks seems at times to be deliberately targeted. For instance, Mr Barnett criticises as "extreme" the "vision of Auckland hosting the Olympic Games". Yet only one candidate has come up with that fantasy - Mr Banks. Mr Barnett also wrote that "mayoral aspirants shouldn't be campaigning around creation of a personality cult". Yet who is it who encourages the catchphrase "Banksie?"

In yesterday's Herald Mr Barnett declared it "outrageous" of my colleague Bernard Orsman to draw the conclusion that he was taking a pot-shot at Mr Banks. He said his comments "offered no criticism of any individual". True enough, not individually. But what it did do was damn with faint praise every candidate that has so far put their head above the parapet. For example, "our mayoral candidates are falling well short of declaring a comprehensive vision for what they want Auckland to become ..." Or, "the trickle of candidates that have declared to date are thinking and campaigning as if they are standing for an old-style city council".

And who was the first to trickle forth? None other than Banksie.

Mr Barnett says his opinion piece "was not a judgment on any individual, and certainly not on Mr Banks". Maybe if he writes that out by hand 500 times and gives it to Mr Banks, he might be forgiven.

Almost as confusing was the business leader's attack on personality politics in the same breath as he kept repeating the belief that the Super City leader would be an "executive mayor". You only have to look around the region's cities and further afield to see how personalities rather than policies get mayors elected. Banksie, Bob Harvey, Tim Shadbolt, Bob Parker, all benefit from larger-than-life personas. Concentrating more power into that position, as an executive mayoralty model does, only increases the likelihood of personalities rising to the top - particularly in an electorate as vast and disparate as Greater Auckland. If Manukau Mayor Len Brown tries to get the rest of us to notice him with huge images of himself on billboards, is this personality cult or common sense?

Of course it's rather desperate to see the business community still persisting in the expectation that the Super Mayor will be an "executive," presidential-style mayor. One, presumably, of their ilk. Luckily for the rest of us, these hopes are going to be dashed.

Certainly Auckland's new mayor will have more power than the region's existing leaders. But it's still power tempered by the need to get majority backing from the city's 20 councillors.

The Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009 spells this out. "The governing body of Auckland Council must comprise a mayor and 20 councillors." It is this governing body that is "responsible and democratically accountable for the decision- making of the Auckland Council ..."

This power is further shared with local boards, the act specifying that "unlike other local authorities, both the governing body and the local boards are responsible and democratically accountable for the decision- making of the Auckland Council".

In other words, the powerful "executive mayor" of some dreams is in the end just one vote in a council of 21, just as now. Sure, he has the high-sounding responsibility under the act "to articulate and promote a vision for Auckland and provide leadership for the purpose of achieving objectives that will contribute to that vision". He also will "lead the development" of council plans, policies and budgets "for consideration by the governing body", appoint the deputy mayor and committee chairs. He will also have his own little bureaucracy.

In the end, though, he's just one out of 21, dependent on personality and political support, to achieve anything. While we debate the merits of the show ponies lining up for the mayoral race, the reality is, the next three years of Auckland's development are really dependent on the electoral raffle that will select the 20 councillors. It's their collective vision - or lack thereof - that will chart our immediate future, not the one-vote mayor's.