Mai Chen: City's tale best told by its creators

Those involved feel the creation of the Super City has been by no means a perfect process but the result is aspirational. Photo / Richard Robinson

Voices of those whose efforts brought unified Auckland Council into being now on record for posterity

I am in Canada knocking off another bucket list entry. Time will run out before money, and I continue to endeavour to live every year of my life as if it were my last — so I put nothing off. I have just finished arguing a court case, and I have another couple of urgent court cases when I return so I need to rest and reflect.

Last year at this time, I was in the middle of interviews for Transforming Auckland: The Creation of Auckland Council, which the Hon Nikki Kaye will launch next week. I am glad I persevered and finished the book as some of those interviewed are no longer in their Transforming Auckland roles, but what they created, and why, and their thoughts on what did and didn't work are now recorded for posterity.

The record should help all those who have to work with Auckland Council to better understand how to do that. The book should also help other local authorities in New Zealand and overseas glean the lessons learned.

What has interested me most is how the operation of Auckland Council is so little reflected in its establishing legislation and how it needs the voices of those who created the council to turn the one-dimensional laws into the 3D living reality.

For example, the Hon Rodney Hide said: "I regret not legislating the unitary plan coming into force immediately and not insisting on a permanent mechanism for Auckland Council and central government to talk to each other ... I was shocked that the council civil servants got it; even when they knew they didn't have a job at the end of it, they still loved the idea."

Len Brown said: "Government is the big dog and we are the little dog — central government is representative of the will of the people and we are a product of statute. Government has sovereignty, statutory power and the moral authority as the representatives of the people of New Zealand and we are the representatives of Auckland."

Inaugural Auckland Council chief executive Doug McKay said: "It's so much easier now. The first year, and most of the second year, every hour, problems would come through the door that we'd never seen before. We could have changed a lot of things in the first three months of the process because they weren't going well ... The speed with which Auckland can now operate and the calibre of the resources it can bring to decision-making is amazing. We can afford to pay for the very best advice and we're getting a whole lot of inquiries from a different calibre of people. All of a sudden, local government, and being a part of Auckland Council, is on people's career path."

Andrew McKenzie, chief financial officer of Auckland Council, said: "The independent Maori Statutory Board is in an awkward position because its true purpose is confusing.

"The board has been set up to represent one particular part of society to a democratic institution, but the Treaty is not for Auckland Council to deal with, it is for central government."

Royal Commission into Auckland Governance chairman Hon Peter Salmond, QC, said: "The role of local boards needs to be much clearer and there needs to be a greater emphasis on partnership roles between the local boards and Auckland Council."

Fellow Royal Commission panel member David Shand said: "In regards to the councillors, our recommendation was that some should be elected at large as opposed to being elected from particular areas, so as to ensure a regional perspective is maintained. Unfortunately this was not accepted by Government."

Christine Fletcher, former mayor, and councillor for the Albert-Eden-Roskill Ward, agreed that this was a "fundamental flaw in the transition to Auckland Council, resulting in councillors ending up focusing on ward-based issues, which leads to parochialism ... at the expense of the vision of the governing body, which is looking at the best interests of Auckland."

Former councillor for Maungakiekie-Tamaki Ward Richard Northey said that "There doesn't appear to be a consistent view in relation to the post-election review of CCOs ... Auckland Transport and Watercare are closest to core delivery mechanisms of council, and on that basis if the council was to have the freedom to do so, those two CCOs could well be the first two to be pulled back."

The last word has to go to Sir Bob Harvey who said he first coined the term Super City back in 1993.

"We have stolen Wellington's clothes. The power has moved. There has been a sea-change and a cultural shift."