Timing traps multi-board member

Warren Flaunty. Photo / Supplied

The country's most elected local government politician, Warren Flaunty, has struck a problem - how to be in two places at once.

Mr Flaunty was elected to three Auckland Council local boards, as well as being re-elected to the Waitemata District Health Board and the Waitakere Licensing Trust.

Before the election, the busy pharmacy owner was confident his working week - now varying between 40 and 60 hours - would not grow should he be elected to two local boards in northwest Auckland.

"If they want me - I'm there."

However, he bagged all three that he stood for.

Last week board members received notice of the time and place for their swearing-in ceremonies.

Two of Mr Flaunty's boards - Rodney and Upper Harbour - will hold them at 6pm on Wednesday, November 3.

Rodney's will be in the rural Coatesville Settlers Hall and Upper Harbour's in the stadium at Albany.

Mr Flaunty said the clash was "not a big issue".

He recalled community board members missing the ceremony and being sworn in at a later date.

He thought he would either attend one or try to attend both, as the venues were a15-minute drive apart.

Asked if he would drop one of his boards, he replied: "If I chucked one in there would have to be a byelection and I would not put ratepayers through that cost."

Mr Flaunty's other new responsibility, the Henderson-Massey Board, holds its ceremony the following night.

He received 17,700 votes altogether for the boards and the population they will cover totals 213,000.

This is greater than the population of Waitakere City, where he has been a councillor for six years, in addition to being half-owner of the busy Westgate Pharmacy.

Mr Flaunty does not know whether board formal meeting dates for the year will clash because Auckland Council has not yet proposed them.

His friend Massey Community Board chairman John Riddell, who was deprived of a place on the new board, called Mr Flaunty an "extremely hard worker, who knows his stuff".

But he said the workload for a member of a board the size of Henderson-Massey (population 109,600) would be greater than that of a current community board member.

"And it will tell. He will end up being carried."

Local Government NZ president Lawrence Yule said it was up to Mr Flaunty to decide whether he could do justice to all roles.

Mr Yule, who is Mayor of Hastings District, which has a population of 74,000, said: "I can make no judgment on whether he can do all that work.

"He would have made that judgment. But how he can stand on three boards and the district health board, I'm not exactly sure.

"However, there are plenty of precedents of people standing for district health boards, councils and power trusts at the same time."

The rule allowing multiple community board membership is an anomaly, said LGNZ manager governance Mike Reid.

A few years ago the organisations approached the Government to get rid of the anomaly, but the Electoral Act had not been changed in the nine years since and the matter had dropped off the list.