Without more councillors Auckland's growth will reduce quality of Super City democracy, says governing body

The report said Auckland's population was growing and that by 2033, one councillor would be representing 100,525 residents. Photo / Richard Robinson

Auckland Council will ask Parliament to change the Super City's founding legislation that fixed the number of councillors, saying population growth could affect the quality of citizens' representation.

The council is the only one in the country without power to review how many councillors sit on its governing body, because the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act set this at 20, plus the mayor.

The first elected members to the merged council began work in November 2010 after Parliament's initial legislation decided their number and introduced the concept of shared decision-making between the governing body and 21 local boards.

The Local Government Commission decided the number of councillors' wards, with the boundaries of wards coinciding with those of one or more local boards.

The current number of 20 members is "workable", according to a report from a working party of elected members and two from the Independent Maori Statutory Board, which was provided for in the final legislation.

However, the report said Auckland's population was growing and that by 2033, one councillor would be representing 100,525 residents.

In 2013, it was one councillor to 74,659 residents.

The working party felt that a future council, when conducting a representation review, should have the ability to change the number of governing body members.

Principal democracy services adviser Warwick McNaughton said the working party noted that if the need arose to elect one or more members on the basis of Maori wards, the legislation required such a member to be included in the 20 members.

This meant the number of governing body members elected on the basis of general wards would reduce.

The governing body also believes the Local Government Commission should have the power to make minor changes to local board boundaries to ensure fair representation in line with population changes.

Mr McNaughton said the council to be elected late next year might wish to alter the boundary of the Waitemata Ward.

Waitemata Local Board chairman Shale Chambers, a member of the working party, said councillor Mike Lee's ward included three local boards - Great Barrier, Waiheke and Waitemata.

Population growth of Waitemata went from 70,000 to 79,000 in the 2013 Census, so Mr Lee's seat would be way above the 10 per cent margin for fair representation.

"It's not in breach of the law but clearly Mike and the Waitemata Local Board are per member representing far more constituents than other ward councillors or local boards' members.

"As a central city ward, we are pretty busy. Most of our seven members are full time on the job, though not paid to be.

"We're not complaining and we manage by working hard."

Mr Chambers said the question for the people was whether they were getting fair access to members and whether members were able to fulfil their role.