THE PRESS SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1989. The next Mayor and council

Press, 4 March 1989, Page 20

THE PRESS SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1989. The next Mayor and council

The next three years will be a testing time for local government in Christchurch. Whoever wins the mayoralty, and whichever group achieves a majority on the enlarged City Council, they will face the task of somehow making representatives and staff of half a dozen former local authorities work together. As the chairman of the Waimairi District Council, Mrs Margaret Murray, remarked this week, “It is an horrific time to be in local government.”

Mrs Murray deserves praise for her decision not to contest the mayoral election. She intends to give her support to the present Mayor, Sir Hamish Hay. Speaking on behalf of Waimairi, she has been an outspoken critic of amalgamation, especially in the form finally imposed by the Local Government Commission. Sir Hamish Hay, who was first elected to the City Council in 1959 and has been Mayor since 1974, has a long record of supporting amalgamation. Had these two remained at odds, the task of somehow making the enlarged council work would have been all that more difficult.

Now, Sir Hamish Hay has a prospect of election for a sixth term as Mayor; he can expect support from Mrs Murray and her colleagues; in return Mrs Murray might well expect an opportunity to stand for Mayor when Sir Hamish Hay stands down. Some electors, especially from outside the boundaries of the present Christchurch City, can hardly help feeling aggrieved at the HayMurray accord. It seems electors will be left this year with no Mayoral candidate who is opposed to amalgamation. Electors who

would have preferred some outcome other than the new mega-city may be able to register their protest only by declining to vote.

To welcome the accord is not to dismiss the possibility of a new Mayor. The Labour Party has yet to choose its candidate, but the most likely, Cr Vicki Buck, has considerable experience in local government and could command wide support. She has been a city councillor for 14 years and served a term as chairman of the council’s important finance committee. She and her party support amalgamation. The sweeping changes to boundaries, the sense of unease about amalgamation in parts of the enlarged city, all make this election hard to predict. A good case could be made for a clean sweep that puts new personalities at the top of a new city. Against that must be set the case for continuity, especially in the most difficult period of shaking down the new system. The enlarged Christchurch has, in theory, a much enlarged pool of talent from which to draw candidates for local office. The new city will have 24 elected councillors, plus a Mayor. As well, two people will be elected to ward committees for each of the city’s 12 wards. In total, fewer than 50 elected offices are open in a region that, until now, has had more than 120 elected positions. Out of it all can surely come a council with the experience, the energy, and the sense of innovation to make the new arrangements work for the benefit of the whole community. That, after all, is what local government reorganisation is really all about.