By the time you read this, postal voting will be underway for the 2019 local body elections.
The degree of interest in local elections tends to be determined by the mayoral contest. The problem this year is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for both main contenders. This time it’s the ‘under card’ contests for ward councillor, deciding the make-up of the council’s governing body, that will be decisive. Until recently, councillors, who with the mayor constitute the council’s ‘Governing Body’, have been acting virtually as an adjunct to the ‘super mayor’, passively facilitating the mayoral programme.
Inclusive, personable Len Brown was able to make this ‘presidential’ model work. Phil Goff who parachuted into Brown’s job certainly adopted Brown’s presidential approach – even more so. But Goff also brought with him a personal political style derived from a lifetime in parliamentary politics. That political culture is a zero-sum game, with winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, and is rarely consensual. This Wellington party political culture, in my experience, is not helpful for good local government in Auckland.
Under the cliquish, secretive Goff, councillors have been divided into two factions. Those supporters of Goff, called by the media the ‘A team’ and those who are not – called the ‘B team’. It should be pointed out this ‘B team’ was created, not by its members – but by Goff himself virtually as soon as he was elected mayor.
Assuming Goff is re-elected and a pro-Goff political grouping gains a majority, then this divisive political environment will continue. If, however, independently minded councillors attain a majority, then council politics, whoever becomes the mayor, are likely to become more democratic and transactional, with the Governing Body providing a check and balance on mayoral powers – even initiating its own policies. In other words, as recommended by John Roughan of the ‘Herald’, the Governing Body will start governing.
What is much more troubling to me than the division of councillors into A and B teams, is that Auckland Council and its CCOs have also divided the people of Auckland into A and B teams. The ‘A team’ constitutes a favoured minority, among which are highly paid bureaucrats and un-elected CCO directors and, among the public, rich-listers and property developers.
Think Rod Duke and his non-notified consent to turn a heritage boatshed into a ‘James Bond’ helicopter pad, and lucky developer John Love who was able to buy the council Civic Administration Building, worth at least $60m, plus half a hectare of prime CBD land, for a pitiful $3m.
The ‘B team’, on the other hand, are the overwhelming majority of Aucklanders who have to pay for it all, with pending 3.5% rates increases compounding over the next three years, increased user charges, plus plans, still by-and-large secret, to impose a so-called ‘toilet tax’.
Even in the highly desirable Waitemat-a & Gulf Ward, most people are being treated as ‘B team’. Typical ‘B team’ members are the small businesses in West Lynn and soon K’ Road, oppressed by over-engineered cycleways which take out the car parks upon which their likelihoods depend.
Ratepayers are even having to take their own council to court to protect their property rights. Herne Bay ratepayers had to judicially review the Duke consent. St Marys Bay and Herne Bay residents associations were forced to appeal ‘Healthy Waters’ plans (plans supported by the Waitemata Local Board), to drive a $44m plus combined sewage and stormwater tunnel from Westhaven under St Marys Bay cliff-top homes to Erin Point, designed to discharge sewage under the harbour bridge.
‘B team’ citizens of the City Centre Residents Group (along with myself) are involved in an appeal against council’s decision to build so-called ‘dolphins’ (in reality a 100m wharf extension) off Queens Wharf.
At least these resource consents were among the 1% publicly notified – almost 99% are not. Such as the consent to disruptively reduce Quay Street to one lane each way (“effects no more than minor”), again cheered on by the ‘A team’ Waitemat-a Local Board, with K’Road to follow. Across the ward at the Salisbury Reserve, Herne Bay Petanque, Ponsonby Probus and Ponsonby U3A, mainly seniors, have been cast into the ‘B team’, with their longstanding parking removed and the historic Masonic Hall demolished by decision of the local board, despite their heartfelt submissions.
This increasingly bossy, elitist attitude that has emerged in recent years has got to change. This is not how local government is meant to work. But once every three years you do have an opportunity to make a difference. Don’t waste it. I can promise you this – as a genuine independent my vote will not be controlled by a party boss who gets calls from the mayor.
This election I ask you to set aside party politics and take the opportunity to send the council a message; a message loud enough to be heard in Wellington. (MIKE LEE - Councillor for Waitemata & Gulf)
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