Brian Rudman: Avoiding culture clash a must for mayor's top 100

Auckland Mayor Len Brown. Photo / NZ Herald

Over the weekend, the Auckland Transition Agency, the body charged with establishing the Super City, puffed up its chest and issued an economist's report claiming it had "initiated efficiencies resulting in annual savings of around $95 million per year".

Tonight, new mayor Len Brown, will reveal to the first meeting of the new council how he plans to spend that money - and more - in his "100 things I'm going to do in a 100 days" pledge.

But on Saturday night, Mayor Brown got a first-hand example of how achieving success as a result of the new amalgamated local government structure will not necessarily need large sums of money.

He was guest of honour at the opening night of the Auckland Theatre Company's revival of Cabaret, showing in a Spiegeltent at the Viaduct Harbour. Unprogrammed was the throbbing beat of a dance-party boat moored at an adjacent wharf.

ATC general manager Lester McGrath spent much of the production outside, with his noise meter at the ready, on the phone to Auckland City noise control officers.

The frustration was that both shows had resource consents. ATC got permission from Auckland City, and many were the silly hoops Mr McGrath had to leap through to ensure ATC didn't annoy the restaurant crowds nearby.

But the dance-party boat had to get its resource consent from the Auckland Regional Authority, and the bureaucrats administering one side of the Viaduct did not speak to those on the other. And so two incompatible activities got permission to co-exist under rules designed specifically to avoid such clashes of use.

As it turned out, given the raucous behaviour in the ATC's pre-war Berlin, Kit Kat Klub, an undercurrent of 21st century party noises off added a certain musical modernity to the show, but it was not one planned by the producer. And, hopefully, in a better co-ordinated "one city" structure, this won't happen again.

Of course, ATC couldn't resist pointing out to Mr Brown that the show was only in the Spiegeltent because his new city lacked a permanent mid-sized theatre in which ATC could perform. Hopefully the message got through and it's on tonight's "Top 100" list.

By the time you read this, some if not all of the new councillors will have dragged themselves out of bed for a 5.30am blessing by Ngati Whatua elders.

Maori were denied separate temporal political power in the form of dedicated seats on the new council. But when it comes to invoking the supernatural, they've been given the nod to ask the God or Gods to keep a kindly eye on Mayor Len and his councillors. Well, let's hope that's what they asked for.

First test of that could be by dialling 301-0101 and seeing what happens. One of the transition agency's big tasks was to create a single interface between ratepayers on the one side and the new organisation on the other. That's the magic number.

What they've created is a bit like one of those wonderfully complicated old Heath Robinson cartoons, full of cogs and wheels and pulleys, making a simple task hugely convoluted. The one-city illusion is that from today, there is one bureaucracy and one institution. But behind the facade, as you would expect, the stitching-together process is just beginning.

We're still paying rates, set by our old council, and water bills set by our old water provider. Indeed, over the weekend I received rates demands from the ARC and Auckland City, even though they're now both officially dead. I'm told to make out my cheques to them anyway.

As for illusions, I'm glad to see Mr Brown's vision of the new council as one big love-in is starting to fray around the edges already. The decision of Citizens and Ratepayers co-leader Christine Fletcher to turn down a committee chairmanship was welcome news.

Straight-jacketing councillors from across the political spectrum in a mayoral-appointed "cabinet" risks driving debate behind closed doors.

Mrs Fletcher's team took a drubbing in the polls.

Refusing to join the "cabinet" of the team she opposed seems the honourable way to go. It also ensures plenty of lively debate, which can only be healthy in what we're told is the second most important democratic organisation in the country.