KEY POINTS:
An Auckland super mayor with executive powers will not go down well with the rest of the country, says outgoing Local Government New Zealand president Basil Morrison.
Mr Morrison said there was enough bad feeling towards Auckland without giving the leader of 1.4 million people more power than other mayors.
"I would not like to see a situation where one mayor had greater responsibility than his or her colleagues."
However, he could see the merit of handing some executive powers to an Auckland mayor after watching an old schoolmate and former Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard hamstrung by a council that did not support him.
The idea of an Auckland executive mayor, along the lines of London, has been raised at the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance.
The commission is looking at Auckland and how best to reshape the current structure of seven councils, one regional council and community boards for the next 50 years.
Mr Morrison, who steps down this month after eight years as president of Local Government New Zealand, said there was a concern that whatever happened in Auckland could be used as a template for the rest of the country.
The 61-year-old has spent 37 years in local government, including 15 years as Mayor of Hauraki District, mingled with dairy farming, business development, rugby and deer stalking.
He supported the work of the commission and believed Auckland could be heading for a two-tier model of a single super city responsible for regional functions and infrastructure with empowered community councils at the local level.
"I think it will be good for Auckland. And if it is good for Auckland, it has to be good for the rest of the country."
Mr Morrison said the Government had to stand up and implement whatever recommendations the commission made and not fiddle around like it had done with last year's Local Government Rates Inquiry.
He was in no doubt "some factions would go nuts". Tactics, like those employed by the Local Government Act 2002, would come into play.
Looking back on his term, Mr Morrison said the act had been used by interest groups and individuals to push their own agendas at the expense of long-term community plans.
It went something like this: "As long as you include my new boat and don't put the rates up to buy your new tractor, I'm happy. But, by god, if your tractor is in it and my boat is not, then you have not listened to me."
Mr Morrison said the Government had introduced a number of requirements and funding pressures on councils in his eight years, but also some financial assistance in other areas, such as making water drinkable and improving wastewater systems and transport.
