Lee wants to tell PM his mind

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee hopes he will get a chance this week to give Government leaders an alternative view on "a way forward" for reform of local body structure.

Last week Auckland's four big-city mayors met Prime Minister Helen Clark to put their plan to replace the ARC with a Greater Auckland Council and compress the region's seven councils into three or four cities.

Mr Lee said last night that he was disappointed he and the Mayors of Papakura, Franklin and Rodney districts were excluded from the debate, as were the elected councillors of the region's eight local authorities.

He had therefore written to the Prime Minister asking to present a paper this week on ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Auckland local government.

No date had been arranged for this meeting, he said. He wanted mayors and councillors to see the paper before it went to the Government.

"It will be constructive and it won't be a takeover bid for others' councils."

He said the proposal by Dick Hubbard (Auckland City), Sir Barry Curtis (Manukau), Bob Harvey (Waitakere) and George Wood (North Shore) was self-serving and did not tackle the fundamental problems of local government in Auckland.

"Their proposal ... it's not One Auckland. It's the same old Auckland but with the ARC being emasculated, turning into a sham.

"It doesn't stand up to scrutiny if we are concerned about democracy, cost-effectiveness or effective governance. We can and must do better."

Mr Lee said analysis was needed to address which functions and decisions were best made regionally and which were best made locally.

The four mayors told the Prime Minister in a letter last week that the debate over rates was one of the reasons for their plans to deal with the issue of governance reform, but they said it was not the core issue.

The letter says the focus must be on a structure that removes "the conflicting, confusing and overlapping responsibilities" between the ARC and the region's city and district councils.

Mr Lee said it was ironic that the one council that had worked hard to contain costs and keep rates down was now singled out by the mayors for extinction.

"We believe there are significant opportunities to drive efficiencies and cost reduction across the local government sector," said Mr Lee. "Any rationalisation of local government must seek to deliver real benefits to ratepayers by securing savings."

He also said the issue of managing growth, urban sprawl and aligning land use with transport needed "objective and principled decision-making appropriately removed from the undue influence of special interests".

In this regard, he said, the ARC "just went by the book".