Mayor’s power is ‘presidential’
Whoever takes the mayoral chains for Auckland at the upcoming elections will become the second most powerful political figure in the country, an Auckland statesman says.
Auckland’s ‘‘enormously powerful’’ mayor is only ‘‘second to the Prime Minister,’’ said Waitakere City’s last mayor and elder statesman of Auckland local politics Sir Bob Harvey.
The Auckland mayoralty ’’exudes leadership, it exudes influence . . . it is everything and all,’’ Harvey said.
Every mayor in the country is directly elected rather than chosen by councillors - it is a ‘‘presidential’’ rather than ‘‘parliamentary’’ system.
But most mayors are limited in the power they can wield by the need to keep on side with the councillors sitting around the civic table. A mayor is only one vote around that table.
However, when the Government created the Auckland super city it gave the Auckland mayor special powers and a separate budget.
Auckland Council’s governance structure gives the mayor the power to appoint the deputy mayor and committee chairs, set council’s agenda and exercise a casting vote on all committees and the Governing Body.
Part of the political clout the Auckland mayor can claim is because they are the only political leader directly elected by all Aucklanders.
Even though incumbent Auckland mayor Len Brown squandered much of his political capital through his affair with former council ethnic advisory member Bevan Chuang, Massey University public policy commentator Grant Duncan said Brown was still able to force his vision of the City Rail Link through.
‘‘I think the signal moment was straight after Brown’s 2010 election, he went out on a limb on the rail tunnel, at that stage central government had poured cold water on that, Brown took a huge political risk that paid-off, Key was forced to come to the party,’’ Duncan said.
In Auckland pre-2010, with eight old local body councils and Auckland Regional Council, power was diluted. The CRL ‘‘couldn’t have happened’’ under the old regime, Duncan said.
Auckland will soon need to decide on who will next wield the power of the super city mayoralty.