- So we now know what positions
you might consider standing for,
and it would be good to explore these roles
in a little more depth.
Marguerite, at the Governing Body level,
what can a candidate expect if they were successful,
and what kind of decisions are they responsible for?
- Thanks Tamsyn.
So the Mayor and the 20 Councillors
together form the governing body,
and the governing body is responsible
for making the big picture strategic decisions
that affect the whole of Auckland.
The very first thing that they do
is that they decide on the 30 year vision for Auckland,
which we call the Auckland Plan,
which really sets the long term direction for our city.
And then they also decide on strategies.
So like the Waste Minimization Strategy
is an example of the Economic Development Strategy.
So these are the big strategies that really are going to
guide the investments and the decisions
that are affecting residents in the city.
Another thing the Governing Body does is to adopt by-laws,
So some examples might be things like
the freedom camping bylaw, the food
safety bylaw, the Alcohol control bylaw or
When can you walk your dog on the beach
and what can you and can not you do with your dog.
A big part of the governing body role
is to decide on budgets.
The 10-Year Budget which we call the Long Term Plan,
and also annual budget,
and it is the governing body that sets the rate for Auckland
and what Aucklanders will pay.
They also monitor the performance
of Council and controlled organisations,
what we call CCO's.
So they make a whole lot of other decisions that affect
the myriad of services that Auckland Council delivers,
and it can be bus timetables, it can be around libraries,
or public transport more generally.
Big investment decisions that are made
at the governing body level.
So in terms of the commitment
the Mayor's role is more than full-time really.
It is a significant,
both professional and personal, commitment.
Certainly more than 40 hours a week
and pretty much seven days a week,
and the Mayor has an office that supports them to operate,
and that mayoral office by law has a dedicated budget
which is there for the Mayor to be able
to exercise their responsibilities.
The Councillor roles are also full-time,
and they're both daytime and evening commitments.
The Mayor and the Councillors attend many of the,
many meetings really.
All the meetings of the governing body
and it's committees of the hall.
Either committees, workshops, panels,
all kinds of meetings where you spend
a lot of time in the Town Hall.
Well, the workshop for instance are organised
to brief elected members on different subjects
that they have to make decisions on,
and elected members or,
Councillors like all elected members,
attend public events and deal with constituent queries
and engage with the community
so it's a very much a public-facing role.
And there is a myriad of other things
that on an ad hoc basis they will be asked to do.
- So as the person in the room who has been a Councillor,
Michael what does this look like in reality?
What can someone expect?
- Yeah, I have had the privilege of being a Councillor,
and I think to reiterature a couple of those points,
it is, it's regional decision-making.
It's not particularly local decision-making,
and it sort of, it is at the crux of that governance role.
It's really cool.
You do have a day lined up full of workshops,
committees, sub-committees,
you get to sit alongside incredible staff
and really work through those big policy meaty issues.
So I'd definitely agree that it's more than full-time,
and I often describe being a Councillor
as it can be the most frustrating environment you're in,
but it is also the most rewarding,
and I think your ability to level-up and be involved
and put your thumbprint on the regional growth of the city
is a really neat part of it,
and sort of that definitely outweighs all the rest of it.
So as a regional decision-maker
you are based in the city a lot of the time.
You have offices here.
You're always sort of, you've got buckets of reading to do
and you're always trying to think a couple of weeks ahead
about the decisions you are about the make.
So trying to get familiar with the issues around them
and you know, 80% of the time they're not in your ward
so you're doing a lot of travelling around
and just trying to best represent your ward
or your community at that regional level.
So, you definitely have events
most nights and then the weekends.
So, certainly a bit of a lifestyle.
I would say there might be some other Councillors
that don't quite put in that work, but--
(laughing)
- We won't go there.
- Yeah, let's not go there.
- So thank you Michael.
So Louise, in terms of this,
at the local board level, is it similar?
How does it differ?
What can people expect in terms of the responsibilities
for delivering plans and priorities to their communities?
- Yes, thanks Tamsyn.
So look, the local board role
is really about local civic leadership,
and local boards are responsible for decision-making
on local activities, issues, and services.
So this might be things like planning or upgrades
to parks and town centres.
It might be about local services at your recreation centre
or at your pools or community programmes,
or it could be about local events, etc.
In terms of other roles that we have for local boards,
Marguerite talked about regional plans and by-laws,
and local boards have an important role
in providing local input into those plans and by-laws.
So again things like freedom camping, dog by-laws, etc.
One of the key responsibilities of local boards
is every three years to engage with their communities
and develop a local board plan,
and this local board plan articulates
the aspirations of their local communities
and is a very important part of that local board role.
Local board members also work with Manawhenua and Mataawaka.
They priorities spending of the local budget
and also monitor that spending and delivery of projects,
and they're responsible for building strong relationships
with local stakeholders and helping to support
the building of strong communities.
- Awesome, thanks Louise.
And Simon, given you were a Local Board Chair,
what does this look like?
How was it in terms of your lived experience?
- I just, the first thing to say Tamsyn is that
there's no such thing as an average day as an elected member
and that's certainly true as a local board member.
Every day is a bit different and Louise covered
the nuts-and-bolts in terms of what the role is
and the sorts of decisions you'll be making,
but a lot of that is driven by other people,
and so I guess the key bit of advice
I'd give anyone thinking about being an elected member,
a local board member is you're always
going to have more things to get involved in than time,
and so being very clear about
what you want to achieve out of your three years,
what sorts of things are priorities
and important for you and your community,
and put your emphasis there.
I guess also as part of that,
staff are there to really support and advise and assist you,
and I guess that's making that point
that it benefits your community to build that relationship.
Some elected members don't quite see it that way.
It's your decision whether or not you take that advise,
but don't shoot the messenger.
- And what is it like working alongside
other elected members?
- This is quite an interesting thing,
because sometimes it's a bit of a surprise for people
who get elected on a platform,
but everyone gets elected wanting to achieve things
and sometimes you're on a board of seven people,
everyone's been elected for different things,
and it takes a majority of people voting for that
to achieve what you want to achieve,
so the best thing that you can do
is build relationships with your colleagues.
Work together on what you have common ground on.
Play issues not people and then you'll get things achieved.
You don't get anything out of your three years
if you're constantly just one vote in the wilderness,
so working with colleagues is really important.
- And how do you ensure that you're accurately representing
the views of your community?
- I guess it's that thing that sometimes the loudest voices
or the voices that are most readily available
aren't always the most representative,
and it is a thing that as an elected member
there will be people that will contact you
that will be in touch and that's really useful
to get a sense of issues and things that are out there,
but the best advice I'd give you
is think about who you're not hearing from.
Think about which voices in the community
you aren't accessing.
You make better decisions when
you hear a range of views and it's always,
it's always in your interest to seek them out
if they're not coming to you through the door.
- Awesome, thanks Simon and Michael, that's great advice.
So for remuneration, if successful what does remuneration
look like for elected members Marguerite,
and also I'd just like to acknowledge Genevieve
who's put a question forward for Slido,
which we will get to, just to let you know,
that she's asked about the remuneration for the Mayor.
- Okay.
(laughing)
- So the remuneration for all elected members,
and that's true for local bodies all around New Zealand,
is set by the Remuneration Authority
which is an independent body.
So the Council doesn't have a say
in the way the remuneration is,
the levels the remuneration is set at.
So for the Mayor the remuneration is been set
for the new term at $296,000 per annum,
and the Mayor can choose to have access
to a Council car if they so wish.
For the Councillors in the new term there's
going to be a new system which hasn't been used before
whereby minimum remuneration has been set for Councillors
at $106,306 and then there is a pool,
a total pool of $430,000 which the governing body
will choose to allocate to positions
of extra responsibilities,
and that includes the Deputy Mayor.
It includes all Councillors if they want to allocate more
to each of the Councillors and also positions like
the chairs of the committees of the hall.
And all the positions have the responsibility
that they might choose to allocate extra remunerations for.
So that's going to be a new system
and it's a little bit different
for local boards.
So I'll get Louise to explain how that works.
- Thanks Marguerite.
For local boards their remuneration range
is different for each board,
and as Marguerite explained
about the Remuneration Authority,
they set a ranking for the local boards
and this takes into account different factors.
This includes population, the total assets,
and the board expenditure and social deprivation.
So that's what the ranking is based on.
We have a different rate for the chair.
The Deputy Chair receives 60% of the chair's remuneration
and local boards receive 50% of the chair's remuneration.
So for the new term the remuneration of the chairs
will range between $85,000 to $99,000,
and for members the figure is between $44,000 to $49,000.
Now look I'll just also note for Waiheke,
and Aotea-Great Barrier,
the rates are lower because they have a smaller population.
So that's basically the remuneration for the local boards.
- And Marguerite do they receive
additional reimbursement payments
for the work that they're doing as an elected member?
- So the Remuneration Authority also sets up
the rate of some other expenses that can be reimbursed.
The most obvious one is about transport costs,
so whether it's public transport or the use of your car,
and we've got an elected member expense policy
that outlines all those expenses
and what elected members can claim,
so that's something that we can explain in more detail
when people are elected and when they come into office.
But there's one thing that I think
is really important to emphasis
and that is that elected members
are basically considered to be self-employed.
So they are responsible for their own taxes.
So it's really important if you're elected
that you get some financial and tax advice
because you will have to cover your own taxes
and you will also have to cover your ACC levies.
So don't get caught if you get elected
get advice and get ready.
- Okay Marguerite.
We also have a quick question here from Sarah via Slido.
Kia ora Sarah.
Why is remuneration so poor?
This role requires strategic expertise
and a huge time commitment.
- So obviously the councils do not have a say
in how the remuneration is set.
This is decided by the Remuneration Authority.
They have done a very thorough review of remuneration
throughout the country over the last 18 months
and they have established the rates
based on what they believe is fair remuneration
but also taking into account the fact
that they consider that being an elected member
is a commitment to your community,
and they set the remuneration
of the Mayor of Auckland as the biggest role
in local government and they use the role of an MP
as a benchmark and from there decide
the ranking of all the different roles.
But there is definitely a consideration
that a service to your community comes into the role.
- Absolutely.
So in terms of the support that people
can expect to receive if they are elected,
what does this look like for elected members?
- So first of all for all elected members,
both governing body and local board,
we've got a programme called Kura Kawana
and that is the Elected Member Development Programme.
So it comprises a very comprehensive induction programme.
So it really helps the elected member to come on board,
and then ongoing professional development
over the three years of the term.
The other thing that we do for elected members
is we give them a phone and a computer if they,
if they so wish, and so there's also training
and support on how to use that technology.
So for the governing body the Mayor and the Councillors
have an office in the CBD,
in the Auckland Council on 135 Albert Street.
As I explained the Mayor
has their own office which supports them,
but the Councillors are supported by a team
of dedicated advisors which we call
the Councillor Support Advisor Team,
and they do everything from diary management
and help with email as well as constituent queries,
advice, research, so they work very very closely
as the right hand of their Councillor.
It's important to realise that the council staff,
as an organisation, exists to support
the elected members make decisions.
So we are here to provide advice and support
so that they can exercise their governance role
and so the whole organisation
is geared towards providing advice.
- And Louise what does that look like
for local board members?
- Local board members have a local board office
which will be based in their local community,
and they have a dedicated team
that actually helps support them as well.
So that team works really closely with them
and helps them in fulfilling their role.
As Marguerite said the organisation itself,
the wider organisation of Auckland Council,
also provides specialist advice and support
to local board members and we also have
the local communications team
also provides that support as well.
So quite a range of people that are helping provide
that advice to local board members and support.