The mayor of Auckland's super council should get wide powers and a dedicated budget to lead the body, a parliamentary committee recommended today.
The special committee has reported back on legislation to set up the new council in ways which had been widely signalled in recent months.
The new Auckland super city council will have 20 to 30 boards under it with control of funding for community initiatives and local decision making powers.
The boards will be able to propose targeted rates in their areas and by-laws, as well as make decisions about prioritising spending and services.
The regional wide council sitting over the boards would be made up of 20 councillors elected solely by a ward system and not a mix of ward and councillors elected at large as initially proposed.
The wards of these councillors are areas covered by the local boards and will be set by the Local Government Commission.
There will be local boards for Rodney, Franklin, Waiheke and Great Barrier Island defined in the law.
Not included in the council would be north Rodney, which would go to Kaipara.
Over the top of the council would be a mayor who would determine the council's committee structure and appoint chairs and the deputy mayor.
The new mayor would also get a separate budget of roughly $2 million to set up their own office, as well as powers to set the council's direction and programme.
The mayor would only get one vote and could be out-voted by a majority on the council.
As expected there was no provision for Maori representation.
Labour, the Maori Party and the Greens all filed dissenting minority.
Labour said it agreed with reform and the concept of one council, one mayor, one plan, but the method of reform and the details had been badly handled.
It believed there should be separate Maori seats and more councillors on the Auckland super city council.
There should also be fewer local boards, Labour said.
The parliamentary committee also recommended that all elections should be first-past-the-post, but Labour wanted a single transferable vote system.
The Green's opposed the overall concept of a single city and was concerned that the local boards did not have enough powers.
Both the Greens and Labour said the bill as redrafted put too much power in the hands of the Mayor.
The Maori Party was totally opposed to the bill as it failed to provide for Maori representation.
