By WAYNE THOMPSON
Two Auckland region mayors want to chop membership of their councils and empower them to act more like boards of directors.
Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey and North Shore mayor George Wood say a shakeup of the way citizens are represented in local government is overdue.
They will ask their councils to consider a better delivery to citizens in submissions to the current three-yearly public review of representation and council membership.
The mayors said electors should be able to choose any of the candidates, just as they do for the post of mayor.
Councillors are presently elected to represent a specific ward, for example, Henderson or Harbour.
Mr Harvey called for his council's numbers to be cut from 14 to 10, while Mr Wood said his recommendation would be to trim the 16-strong council to 12.
Both mayors also favour smaller but more powerful community boards.
Waitakere has four community boards, each with seven members. North Shore's six boards have between four and six members.
Mr Wood said his council had "made a hash" of trying to ensure its boards were widely representative this term. This was because eight councillors were also elected to community boards.
He believed councillors should give other citizens a chance to sit on boards.
This move, and election of councillors at large, would allow them to focus on strategic planning and policy-making.
Out west, Mr Harvey also wants to end the ward system and increase board powers. But he said the web of influence must reach out to the city's growing ethnic communities.
For seven years his council had received a Maori perspective on issues from its Maori standing committee. Mr Harvey suggested extending the concept to other races.
In Rodney District, community boards could be out and wards in for elections next March 31.
The Local Government Commission is inviting public submissions until August 25 on its plan to split Rodney into three wards. They would elect nine councillors, with the mayor elected at large.
New Zealand
