Editorial: ARC holds key to city's prospects

If the Government needed another demonstration of the calibre of Auckland's local leadership, it has just seen it. Not two weeks ago the Prime Minister and top advisers met the mayors of Auckland's four cities, Dick Hubbard, Bob Harvey, Sir Barry Curtis and George Wood, to be presented with a plan for the creation of a Greater Auckland Council, to get big things happening for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and beyond.

Helen Clark was impressed and said so publicly, suggesting that if the councils got their act together, a reorganisation scheme could be put through Parliament in time to take effect for the local body elections next year. But the mayors did not have their act together. They had not consulted other councils in the region, and crucially, they had not talked to the Auckland Regional Council, which saw the plan, quite accurately, as a plot to replace it.

Regional chairman Mike Lee and excluded representatives such as Papakura Mayor John Robertson weighed in against a plan which was, in any case, seriously flawed. It proposed to retain three of the four cities, and most community boards, as subsidiary councils to the supercity. The supreme council would be barely, if at all, democratic. It would comprise the mayors of the subsidiary cities, appointees from business and other interests and assorted others, such as the Minister for Auckland, Judith Tizard, under a Lord Mayor elected by the region. This body, at best once removed from direct election, would have sole power to gather rates.

Under serious scrutiny, the plan lasted less than a week. Last Friday, the Auckland Mayoral Forum dumped it and agreed instead to try to strengthen the regional council. To be strictly accurate, they resolved to develop, in consultation with the Government, by Christmas a proposal "that can secure public support" to strengthen regional governance. When that phraseology lands on the Prime Minister's desk she could be forgiven a yawn. It is not the language of leaders who are likely to make things happen.

Auckland's problem is not only the limitations and indecision of its regional council but also the larger pretensions of the Auckland City Council. The City runs several amenities that would more logically belong to the region. But while the City complains about the miserly assistance it receives from the other cities for attractions such as the zoo and the art gallery, it is not about to give them up.

The Auckland City Council is a well-established, confident and competent body that makes big decisions, such as the Britomart terminal, without too much regional co-ordination. It has bought Westhaven marina and is trying to buy into Ports of Auckland's Tank Farm development. It would like to own the port, which is now vested in the ARC. The supercity plan appeared to many to be a city grab for the regional assets.

Now the plan has failed, Auckland's urgent need is to invest the ARC with some of the confidence and competence of the city. A good first step would be to make the regional chairperson an elected position rather than one chosen by those elected to the council. A direct election would focus interest on the position and hopefully attract high-calibre candidates with a slate of council candidates and a clear bold programme.

Some people of that calibre were behind the ill-fated plan put up by the four mayors two weeks ago. Auckland needs those people to come out of back-rooms, and accept the challenge of standing for election and selling bold plans to the public. The regional council, properly empowered, is one place to do it. That, or a bolder plan to create a real supercity with one powerful, effective council, should be put to the Prime Minister as soon as possible. At least she is personally acquainted now with our disarray.