Push for limit on board positions

Warren Flaunty. Photo / Supplied

Labour wants to stop local board members sitting on more than one board in the Super City.

The party has responded to the case of pharmacist Warren Flaunty, who was elected to three Auckland Council local boards - Rodney, Henderson-Massey and Upper Harbour.

As well, he was re-elected to the Waitemata District Health Board and the Waitakere Licensing Trust.

Mr Flaunty received 17,700 votes altogether for the boards, and the population they will cover totals 213,000.

As an ordinary local board member he will be paid $104,000 for the three positions - and more if he is elected chairman.

He will be paid between $25,000 and $32,800 for the district health board and $3640 for the licensing trust.

Yesterday, Labour's Auckland issues spokesman, Phil Twyford, said the loophole that allowed Mr Flaunty to win five seats should be closed.

"Power is already too concentrated in the hands of too few people running the Super City."

Mr Twyford said Mr Flaunty, a Waitakere City councillor, was obviously a competent person, but it would be impossible for him to do all the jobs properly.

People should be able to stand for more than one local board but if they get elected to more than one, they should have to choose one.

"I will put up an amendment when Rodney Hide's Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill comes back to the House in a few weeks," Mr Twyford said.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide, the author of the Super City council structure, said Mr Twyford was looking to change the wrong law.

The way to address the issue and other concerns, such as postal voting, was through the regular review of the local body elections by the justice and electoral law select committee. That could lead to changes to the Local Electoral Act, he said.

Mr Hide said that personally, he did not think it was right for anyone to sit on more than one local board - "MPs can't represent three electorates.

"But I will be guided by Parliament and the proper place to consider it is the select committee," he said.

Leading up to the local elections on October 9, Mr Flaunty was confident his working week of running a pharmacy and being a local body politician, varying between 40 and 60 hours, would not change with multiple roles.

However, he has already struck a problem in that the swearing-in ceremonies for the Rodney and Upper Harbour local boards will each be held on November 3 at 6pm. Rodney's will be in the rural Coatesville Settlers Hall and Upper Harbour's in the North Harbour Stadium at Albany.

Mr Flaunty said the clash was not a big issue.

He recalled community board members missing the ceremony and being sworn in at a later date. He thought he would either attend one or try to attend both, as the venues are only a 15-minute drive apart.

Asked if he would drop one of his boards, he replied: "If I chucked one in, there would have to be a byelection and I would not put ratepayers through that cost."

Last week, Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule said it was up to Mr Flaunty to decide whether he could do justice to all roles.

Mr Yule, the Mayor of Hastings District, which has a population of 74,000, said: "I can make no judgment on whether he can do all that work."