OPINION: Auckland Saturday October 22 2011

Auckland is run by the Auckland Council. The mayor wears a flash suit with a new shirt every day and is sometimes mocked by the media for his self-importance.
He campaigned on a platform of being "a man of the people''. But he's way too busy for everyday people now. He's mostly locked in meetings with business moguls who are insisting on public money to support their huge plans to "get Auckland moving/watered/
electrified/booming/fizzing, etc''.
More visible are the 24 Auckland councillors. Most are men, although a couple of women have clawed their way to the big table.
There are 18 councillors elected by their local wards. They were well known in their areas and a couple were previous mayors who retained enough dignity during the merger into the Big City that the locals backed them again. These councillors campaigned on platforms such as "keeping the special identity of our community'' and "making sure your voice is heard at the Big Table''.
They speak at resident and ratepayer association meetings - mostly wringing their hands and pointing out they are "only one vote of 25''. They also cut ribbons at the increasingly rarer openings of halls, libraries and pools.
There are six other councillors who were elected "at large''. They are generally considered to be the mayor's mates. They wear suits all the time and they are usually at the mayor's meetings with the business bigwigs.
Then there are the Council Boards. These are local groups of well-meaning people who get together once a month for a small fee to consider requests from sports groups for help with their muddy grounds and libraries wanting some new books. The board members got elected because they were well known in their neighbourhoods and a couple were previous councillors who retained enough dignity during the merger into the Big City that the locals backed them again.
The local ward councillors also go to these meetings and tell the Council Board that most requests are "out of the question in these trying times''.
The mayor commissioned a former Cabinet Minister to write a report on how the Auckland Council came to be so broke. It blames wasteful previous councils and recommends more assistance should be sought from businesses. The mayor takes the report to Wellington and demands the Government divert more loans to Auckland "for the good of all the country''.
But today is special for a couple of reasons.
Auckland is opening a giant new headquarters because there are "great gains to be made in efficiency by reducing duplication of bureacracy''.
This cost much more money than the Auckland Council has to hand. But the Government has heard the mayor "speaking with one voice'' and has lent the vast portion of it, at a very good interest rate.
The mayor has also negotiated an extremely smart deal with businesses to construct the iconic building, which they will rent to the Council for 50 years before taking ownership of it.
The new headquarters is called Dame Kiri Te Kanawa House, because it includes a world-class opera hall. The mayor jokes that the city has got it for a song.
The sour old media points repeatedly to the lack of community facilites as Council Boards repeatedly vote down attempts to levy their citizens with "a special rate'' to pay for a new community centre or to fix up the memorial pools.
Teens are running amok with boredom and gated communities have gone up across every suburb. Most have notices on their letterboxes that say: "No Junk Mail - especially not voting papers''.
At the opening of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa House, the mayor lambasts these people as uncaring and anti-democratic and insists they be made to pay for every service provided them. The definition of a gated community to be approved by the Chief Executive will be so broad that all citizens will have to pay.
On the other side of the world, former members of the Select Committee on Auckland Governance are guest speakers at a global conference on merging local territorial authorities.
They have flown there on their entitlements as former Ministers of the Crown.
They have sent apologies that they won't be home tomorrow to take their complimentary seats for the final of the Rugby World Cup at Eden Park, between Australia and South Africa.
- Edward Rooney is chief reporter of The Aucklander