Just how powerful is Auckland's mayor?

Friday, 16 September 2016

Len Brown wields enormous political influence despite his fall from grace following revelations of an affair.

Whoever takes the mayoral chains for Auckland at the upcoming elections will become the second most powerful political figure in the country, an Auckland statesman says.

Auckland's 'enormously powerful' mayor is only 'second to the Prime Minister,' said Waitakere City's last mayor and elder statesman of Auckland local politics Sir Bob Harvey.

The Auckland mayoralty 'exudes leadership, it exudes influence . . . it is everything and all,' Harvey said.

Every mayor in the country is directly elected rather than chosen by councillors - it is a 'presidential' rather than 'parliamentary' system.

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Appointing the able Penny Hulse as deputy mayor was seen as an intelligent move by Mayor Len Brown.

But most mayors are limited in the power they can wield by the need to keep on side with the councillors sitting around the civic table. A mayor is only one vote around that table.

However, when the Government created the Auckland super city it gave the Auckland mayor special powers and a separate budget.

Auckland Council's governance structure gives the mayor the power to appoint the deputy mayor and committee chairs, set council's agenda and exercise a casting vote on all committees and the Governing Body.

Former one term Auckland City mayor and sitting Albert-Eden-Roskill councillor Christine Fletcher said the Auckland mayor's office is now 'really a separate layer of government'.

With a budget of more than $4 million and its own staff the mayor has considerable autonomy, Fletcher said.

Prime Minister John Key facing the media after his 2016 announcement to make an early start on the $2.5 billion Auckland city rail link.

'It's very difficult to challenge the mayor now,' she said.

Part of the political clout the Auckland mayor can claim is because they are the only political leader directly elected by all Aucklanders - every individual councillor and every Member of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, is elected only by members of a council ward or electorate.

History may yet judge Len Brown to have been one of Auckland's best mayors.

And that influence is being used to challenge the PM and central government to pay more heed to Auckland.

Even though incumbent Auckland mayor Len Brown squandered much of his political capital through his affair with former council ethnic advisory member Bevan Chuang, Massey University public policy commentator Grant Duncan said Brown was still able to force his vision of the City Rail Link through.

Former Auckland City deputy Mayor Bruce Hucker.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce once likened spending billions of dollars on underground Auckland rail to lunacy. But the Government has now agreed to fast track billions in government funding to make it a reality.

'I think the signal moment was straight after Brown's 2010 election, he went out on a limb on the rail tunnel, at that stage central government had poured cold water on that, Brown took a huge political risk that paid-off, Key was forced to come to the party,' Duncan said.

In Auckland pre-2010, with eight old local body councils and Auckland Regional Council, power was diluted. The CRL 'couldn't have happened' under the old regime, Duncan said.

Duncan remains cautious however on just how far a mayor can set the agenda and make Auckland's 20 councillors follow.

The mayor's power is still constrained by the 'will of the Governing Body' and Auckland's mayor needs to act cooperatively with councillors and Council Controlled Organisation (CCOs) chief executives, he said.

But the authority to be able to appoint a Deputy Mayor has worked well for Brown, Fletcher and Duncan agree.

'Len has found it difficult to be present at council so a lot of power has been conferred to his deputy,' Fletcher said.

Brown has an effective proxy in Penny Hulse being able to delegate his agenda to her as his final term has worn on and final debate on the Unitary Plan arrived.

Brown also 'set a good example right from the start' appointing committee chairs across the political spectrum rather than forming factions, Duncan said.

Former Auckland City deputy mayor Dr Bruce Hucker - who served through turbulent times when Auckland's old council was factionalised and at loggerheads with the mayor - said the super city mayor had lost some control of CCOs however.

These ratepayer owned bodies managing billions of Auckland assets like Auckland's ports and airport don't answer directly anymore to the council but to their own corporate structures.

Short of firing Ports of Auckland's board, there was little the mayor could do to bring the CCO to heal when it went against public opinion announcing it was extending wharfs into Auckland harbour.

Overall, Hucker believes Brown has done a 'good and competent job' shepherding Auckland through significant changes exercising the 'influence of the mayoral office'.

'I think when a bit of time has passed people will look back and see, for example, the City Rail Link is an excellent example of leadership.'

Auckland will soon need to decide on who will next wield the power of the super city mayoralty.