Media Release 20th June 2010-06-20

[Statement from David Thornton]

Powers to recall the mayor would stiffen up new legislation.

With the imminent advent of a Super Mayor for the Auckland Super City it is an appropriate time to put in place powers for residents to sack a Mayor and/or councillors who fail to meet the community’s expectations.

Recall of elected officials is commonplace in the United States, Canada and Venezuela and is under consideration in other countries.

The latest legislation in New Zealand proposes greater accountability from councils, limits on rates and rates increases, and simple and clear plans and reports upon which voters can judge their council’s performance.

These issues are all raised in the Local Government Act Amendment Bill now before a Select Committee of Parliament.

While many of the new proposals will be welcomed by ratepayers unfortunately there are no penalties on mayors and councils who fail to comply with the new requirements.

All we get told are the usual platitudes about voters having the ability to vote elected officials out of office every three years.

But three years can be too long to wait when many Mayors have shown in their first year of office they do not have public support for their performance.

In my submission to the Select Committee I have proposed that a new provision be included in the Bill which establishes a structure whereby citizens will have the ability to demand a binding referendum to ‘recall’ the Mayor and other councillors. In other words to remove them from office.

There is no provision under existing legislation to remove a Mayor from office because of poor performance, so if you get an under-performing Chief Citizen you are stuck with him/her for three years – often to the detriment of ratepayers and all citizens.

In the brave new world of power-enhanced super-mayors the ability to ‘recall’ will provide both a strong incentive on the Mayor to really perform – and great comfort to voters that they have the power to remove their unwanted Mayor from office.

ENDS

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