Nickie Muir: Dizzying choice for council

Catching up with some old girlfriends, we rather rudely commented on one's new co-pilot in life and how different he was from all her others. He had a job, shaved every now and again, was devoid of psycho ex partners and treated her with love and respect. All refreshing qualities.

There had been a time, we reminded her, when we could have thrown 10 good men and one dog at her and she'd have picked the dog every time. You start to like what you've grown to know - no matter how bad it is. What had changed? "For the first time in my life I asked myself what I really wanted. I knew what I'd had - and decided not to choose it again. As simple as that," she said.

I feel the same way about the upcoming local body elections. Decisions. Decisions. Whether we're some big developer or renting an inadequate shack and wondering how we'll ever get our first home - the one time when each of our opinions weighs equally on local governance and what we want for our town, is when the votes are counted. With so many mayoral candidates jostling out of the starting gate it's hard to hear what it is that they're actually promising. Many of them are either already in this council or have been not so long ago and I'm getting dizzy with "Dougal's magic roundabout" of councillors delivering power to the people.

Maybe they are like lovers - if you like what we've had over the last decade then they really don't need to promise anything new because what they'll deliver is most likely more of the same.

A recent browse through the council photo hall of the ghosts of councillors past proved frightening.

Some of them are still present and their original photos contained graphic images of mullets and scenes of indecent flares.

This year, after the changes to local government legislation in late 2012, mayors will have more real political power to make change. The legal power to elect their own deputy. And to choose which elected councillors get to chair each committee. The changes strengthen a mayor's position and although there are enough checks in there to make a complete dictatorship unlikely - it is still worth considering the implications of choosing mayors with a wide boy leadership style.

A good mayor, however, will have the unifying leadership skills and the vision to be able to plot a strong course. It will also mean mayors will be able to carry out what they have promised. There is a lot of accountability there. It will be harder to shrug and say "it's just the way the council as a whole voted" or to blame decisions on the bureaucracy.

Which means it's even more important for voters to know what they are getting. I googled "election promise" against all the candidates to date and the only ones I found were Sheryl Mai's and Vince Cocurullo's. Although Warren Slater had a comprehensive list of perceived broken promises by the current leadership. Does that mean the contenders already in council will electioneer on the platform of "more of the same?" It's not long to go. And we need to know. Then we can have a think about what we really want.