Guide to local government
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What a Mayor does
Christchurch…entrepreneurial style
Masterton…working with neighbours
From DecisionMaker Publications
Apart from chairing the council, mayors and regional council chairs have little in the way of a job description. There are some basic formal duties, and the same collective responsibility as other elected members to the community/constituency, but no preset list of duties.
Mayors and regional chairs tend to have their own styles, and these styles change over time. Their views of leadership, and other aspects of their role, are part of what they offer in the elections that get them to the top in local government.
The Remuneration Authority (formerly the Higher Salaries Commission) has offered a generic statement of mayor and regional chair roles:
"To define and represent the total communities’ interests, ensuring ongoing community and economic development, the effective stewardship of existing assets, sustainable management of the environment, and the prudent management of the communities’ financial resources."
Leadership
A key element of both mayor and regional chair roles is leadership of council – being the public voice, and providing direction to council, enabling it to meet the objectives it is publicly committed to achieving.
Current mayor of Carterton, Martin Tankersley, receives a kiss from former mayor, Georgina Beyer.
Their role is also ‘to lead council in the establishment of the strategic
direction and development of district/regional strategies and plans, monitoring
their delivery, to achieve the outcomes and results agreed in consultation
with the respective electors/constituents represented by council,’ said
the Authority in its discussion paper on the elected member remuneration framework.
A significant part of a mayor’s role is also that of ‘figurehead’ for
the community and the performance of civic duties.
The Remuneration Authority had a discussion with mayors and regional chairs.
It noted that the mayor is elected at large, ‘and as a result may or
may not have sufficient support from the other elected councillors to carry
out their duties’.
This is significantly different from the position of a regional chair, who ‘is elected from within the regional councillors and therefore has a mandate, or majority support, of council’.
Another difference between these two roles is that a regional council has the power to remove the chair or the deputy chair from office, whereas there is no similar provision for a mayor.
Neither the mayor nor the regional chair have the statutory authority to commit a council to any particular course of action except where specifically authorised to act under duly delegated authority.
Mayors can put their own stamp on the role
Christchurch…entrepreneurial style
Mayor Gary Moore said shortly after his initial election that what the public service needs to do is to take on some of the entrepreneurial style of the private sector while also claiming back respect for the public sector as a career. Gary Moore was a key player in helping Ngai Tahu develop Kaikoura Whalewatch from a concept to a major employer in Kaikoura and winner of a global eco-tourism award.
He says, “My style as mayor is to work in partnership.”
For example, Christchurch City Council uses an Intercultural Assembly, fostered by Gary Moore, to bring Māori, Pacific Islands and other ethnic groups together.
Gary Moore sees his role as taking over the chair of the Assembly, and nudging it in new directions as need arises. The Council funds secretariat services, but as far as the Mayor is concerned, the members of the Intercultural Assembly ‘own it’. He says the members feel they have established networks to address issues they face, both as Ngai Tahu and urban Māori, and as new settlers in Christchurch.
Christchurch City also has special mechanisms to work with Māori. Gary Moore notes that, where the Resource Management Act refers to tangata whenua, LGA 2002 refers to Māori. He says tangata whenua and mana whenua references lead to consideration of local landowners, but references to Māori lead to consideration of both Ngai Tahu, and urban Māori. He says 60 percent of Māori in Christchurch are urban and with a broad range of tribal affiliations.
At citizenship ceremonies, Mayor Moore draws attention to New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi agreement with the Crown, and then makes the point that a multicultural society is built on that foundation.
Waitakere...vision
Local Government is not just about rates, rubbish and roads. It is about people and community building; about achieving the best quality of life for the community and working with the people to build the community that they want, Bob Harvey of Waitakere believes.
“ A good mayor of pride must articulate the vision of a better place and
future; must lay down the challenge to constantly do better – to never
rest on laurels – then cheer the community along as they work at delivering
the vision; the economy, jobs, life-long education, transport, public safety,
health, well-being and always, the environment.
“ Furthermore, we must reach for our vision using the tools of the 21st
century; even anticipating tools not yet even made. We don’t want the smokestacks
of yesterday, we want the technology of tomorrow,” Bob Harvey says.
The Mayor’s task is “leadership in the key of e.”
1. Enterprise
2. Environment
3. Education
4. E-commerce and E-government
5. Eccentricity.
“ These are the tools by which we bring benefit to that which is most important: hei tangata, hei tangata, hei tangata. The people, the people, the people. A new Pacific people made up of many cultures, in partnership with each other, with the Treaty and the tangata whenua. People who are not an extension of global uniformity, but a unique people, in a unique place, made unique by their collective endeavour.”
Masterton…working with neighbours
In Masterton, long--time Mayor Bob Francis uses his leadership to build cooperation with neighbouring district councils, the Wellington Regional Council and other bodies to plan and implement programmes in his provincial part of New Zealand. This alliance approach is also used by Manukau City Council and the Auckland Mayoral Forum, and chief executives who service it. LGA 2002 encourages this approach.
Upper Hutt...accessibility
Mayor Wayne Guppy sums up his approach to the role in one word: accessibility. “It takes me an hour or two to buy a few items at the supermarket,” he says. “People come up to me and say ‘Hey, Gup, what are you going to do about such-and-such’. I tell them what I can. Maybe I explain why Council has taken a position, or I tell them who they need to talk to, or I take some notes and promise to get back to them once I’ve found out what they want to know.”
Wayne Guppy is also very enthusiastic about educating school students in local democracy. A number of school parties visit council chambers every week. The mayor greets them, tells them about the work of council and lets them sit in the councillors’ chairs. Some even have the opportunity to try on the mayoral robes and chain. “I tell them, anyone can be mayor,” he says. “You could grow up to be mayor.”
