Auckland board plan leaves peers shocked

Wanaka has more decision-making powers than what is planned for local boards in the Auckland Super City, says Queenstown Lakes District councillor Lyal Cocks.

The Central Otago Community Board, population 6000, has been delegated the maximum functions legally possible by its political masters in Queenstown.

The seven board members have been able to build a new sports facility, come up with a new water system for the small town of Lake Hawea and decide what roads will be sealed.

About all they cannot do is buy and sell land and set rates.

Mr Cocks, who chairs the board and is a member of the New Zealand Community Boards' executive committee, is unimpressed with the plans for local boards in Auckland.

The executive committee is critical of the Government's intentions for local boards, particularly the fact that council-controlled organisations (CCOs) will not be obliged to interact, collaborate or co-ordinate with them.

Unlike Wanaka, where the board has wide-ranging transport functions, the Auckland transport CCO will not be obliged to delegate any function, listen to communities, hold public meetings or front up for dispute-resolution hearings.

Local boards will not know until after November 1, when they come into existence, whether they will have any transport responsibilities, such as the power to move a bus stop or fix a pothole.

The Transition Agency designing the Super City has released a discussion paper, which proposed allocating "significant responsibilities to local boards".

Under the model, the boards would have some say over local facilities such as community halls and sports fields, services like getting rid of graffiti and rubbish, and be able to organise events.

But because most of these functions are also of a regional nature, the Auckland Council, CCOs and bureaucrats would retain ultimate control.

The Auckland Transition Agency is prohibited by law from allocating regulatory functions - such as the location of brothels and liquor ban areas.

Nor can it allocate transport or other functions by CCOs. This will be left to the mostly unelected CCO directors until after November.

The agency's paper gave a number of examples which show that, subject to Auckland Council or CCO approval, local boards will have much greater power than existing community boards.

In one example, it outlined how a local board could plan and build a new library and have it funded and included in Auckland Council's long-term plan.

Local board plans will prescribe community aspirations for three years and be fed into the Auckland Council's 10-year plan.

Local boards will negotiate annual agreements with the Auckland Council on delivery and funding of services.

The local boards will have input into the regional strategies, policies, plans and bylaws of the Auckland Council.

The discussion paper, which is open for feedback until March 26, has failed to impress critics of Super City reforms.

Labour's spokesman on Auckland issues, Phil Twyford, called the paper a huge disappointment and said it showed the Government was turning democracy in Auckland upside down.

"The boards will have only the power to talk among themselves and beg the Super Council to do something," he said.

Green MP David Clendon, who sits on the special Auckland governance select committee where the paper was tabled, said the agency was taking the "local" out of local government.

On Friday, the Human Rights Commission criticised the nine-week submission process on the third and final Super City Bill.

Role of a board in planning library:

* Local board plan process identifies need for a new library.

* Auckland Council agrees and budgets for library in annual plan.

* Local board undertakes community consultation on location and design.

* Local board designs library within the budget.

* If the library costs more, local fundraising is necessary.

* Local board approves design, final cost, and lets the contract.