TWO TERMS MAX

Leggett spells out his mayoral manifesto

"Being on the council shouldn't be a job for life ...I see no reason why I can't make my contribution ... in six years." Wellington mayoral hopeful Nick Leggett

It’s two terms, then the highway.

Wellington mayoral candidate Nick Leggett has given himself a two-term maximum if elected - and he says it’s not because he would jump to national politics.

The Porirua mayor who cast his eyes southward for October’s elections has released his manifesto for getting rid of the ‘‘toxic culture’’ at the Wellington City Council table.

He said if elected he would step down after two terms as mayor.

Leggett said his opponents who were council incumbents had nearly a century at the council table between them.

‘‘Being on the council shouldn’t be a job for life, and if elected I see no reason why I can’t make my contribution in full measure in six years.’’

Leggett said he laughed off suggestions the term cap came because he was angling for ‘‘bigger political jobs in the future’’.

‘‘Resigning membership of the Labour Party after 20 years in order to contest the Wellington mayoralty is hardly the act of someone with national ambitions.’’

The term cap was part of a fivepoint proposal that Leggett released yesterday to end what he said was the infighting, endemic leaking and paralysis of the current term.

The proposal included the abolition of portfolios ‘‘that treat city councillors as quasi-ministers’’, he said. In its place, Leggett said there should be a committee structure with rotating chairs. ’’City councillors are not MPs in training wheels, let alone Cabinet ministers-in-miniature.’’

Councillors had become institutionalised, he said, and focused too much on protecting their patches, ‘‘more like managers than community representatives’’.

‘‘Instead I will propose a committee structure, the chairpersons of which rotate on an annual basis.’’

Leggett would propose to move councillors out from the Wellington CBD to ‘‘community-based councillor clinics’’.

‘‘It wouldn’t take much ingenuity to utilise existing council facilities like libraries to provide perfectly adequate facilities for elected members.’’

He said basing all operations out of the central office contributed to ‘‘palace intrigue’’ and a hostile environment for staff.

A raft of current councillors have announced a run for the mayoralty: deputy mayor Justin Lester, Nicola Young, Jo Coughlan, Andy Foster, and Helene Ritchie.

Leggett might cap his Wellington mayoralty at two terms, but it comes after a lengthy local government history that started when he was elected to Porirua City Council in 1998, aged 19.

He won the Porirua mayoralty in 2010, and successfully held it in 2013.

As well as incumbent councillors, Keith Johnson has announced a run at the mayoralty.