The power and the politics

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.

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.

With a budget of more than $4 million and its own staff the mayor has considerable autonomy, Fletcher said.

Part of the political clout the Auckland mayor can claim is because they are the only political leader directly elected by all Aucklanders - every individual councillor and every Member of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, is elected only by members of a council ward or electorate. And that influence is being used to challenge the PM and central government to pay more heed to Auckland. 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.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce once likened spending billions of dollars on underground Auckland rail to lunacy. But the Government has now agreed to fast track billions in government funding to make it a reality.

Duncan remains cautious, however, on just how far a mayor can set the agenda and make Auckland’s 20 councillors follow.