Law makes Super City a reality

A transition agency will be responsible for restructuring the eight existing councils into one entity by October next year. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland's eight councils will cease to exist on November 1 next year and a Super City council with 6300 staff and $27.2 billion in assets will come into being.

The Government will today pass legislation under urgency abolishing the region's existing councils and creating the Super Auckland Council as a legal entity.

It will also introduce a second bill, the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill, setting out the broad outline of the Super City structure and representation issues.

This bill will go to a special select committee for public submissions. Aucklanders will be able to comment on the Government's plans for between 20 and 30 local boards under the Auckland Council and the issue of councillors elected at large.

The Government favours eight councillors elected at large to the Auckland Council to provide a regionwide view and 12 councillors elected in wards.

Last night, the Government released the two draft bills to the Opposition parties and the media.

The council bill shows that the Government has not gone beyond its already sparse details for the powers and functions of local boards, although Prime Minister John Key and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide are keen to listen to ideas for beefing up the local boards.

The legislation, however, suggests the Auckland Council will have the upper hand as happens now with the power balance between councils and community boards.

The centralisation of services and the power wielded by head office bureaucrats was a sore point at last year's public hearings held by the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance.

The Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill being passed under urgency today also sets up the "Auckland Transition Agency", whose job will be to restructure the eight councils into a single entity by October 31 next year. It will also have the power to constrain the decision-making powers of the existing councils and their subsidiaries.

The agency will be made up of a chairperson and between two and four members. National is believed to favour a five-member agency and Mark Ford, chief executive of the region's bulk water and wastewater company Watercare Services, is the frontrunner to head the agency.

The restructuring will be large, complex, public and controversial. Change management and communication skills will be essential.

One of the first jobs for the agency will be appointing a chief executive, but it will also appoint an interim chief executive for the Auckland Council up to the middle of 2012.

The interim chief executive has been given wide powers before he or she is politically accountable to the Auckland Council. These include the ability to hand-pick his or her executive team, enter into contracts and leases and other agreements "to enable the council to operate efficiently and effectively" from November 2010.

The royal commission recommended the transition agency should have an independent chairman and an interim chief executive until the Auckland Council was in a position to appoint a full-time chief executive.

The only people the chief executive will be accountable to are the members of the transition agency, who in turn, will report to Mr Hide. The agency must obtain the approval of Mr Hide and Finance Minister Bill English for spending. The transition has not been costed. The royal commission put a rough cost of between $120 million and $240 million on its simpler model of a super council and six councils under it.

Speaking in Parliament at question time yesterday, Mr Key said there was nothing in the bills about privatisation of council assets. Privatisation would ultimately be a matter for the Auckland Council, he said.