Sun, 31 Oct 2010 7:30p.m.
Len Brown
Aucklanders will wake up to a new super-sized local government tomorrow as the Auckland Council holds it's inaugural meeting, headed by new Mayor Len Brown.
A dawn blessing at Aotea Square will start the new council's day, which will be led by Maori elders.
Mr Brown and 20 councillors, elected from the greater Auckland area, will later be sworn into office at the Auckland Town Hall, after a powhiri at 6pm at Aotea Square.
Interim chief executive Doug McKay will then swear in Mr Brown as the first Mayor of the new combined Auckland council.
Prime Minister John Key and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide will also speak at the meeting.
Mr Brown was voted in as the area's Mayor on October 9, beating his rival John Banks by a massive 60,000 votes.
He told NZPA his first day in the top seat with his new council would be "hugely exciting and energising, with one or two fairly large dollops of reality around it in terms of the challenge".
One of the toughest challenges was going to be connecting the community since the election and make sure they could see the benefits of the change.
During his campaign Mr Brown emphasised the need for an improved inner city rail network, and he said that would be a priority for the council to get started on.
Next year's Rugby World Cup preparation was also high on the council's agenda.
"I really want Auckland to be totally focussed on shining our streets, our townships, our whole sense of civic pride and presenting ourselves to New Zealand and to the world as a true international city and making sure things will be well in line for being marvellous friendly hosts to the world."
He said the structure of the amalgamated council, which replaces eight separate councils, was unique in the country.
"I know there's either concern or interest from local government around New Zealand and other councils about whether or not they ought to be contemplating amalgamation, but I think it's really important, and I think other New Zealanders really got this that Auckland is a bit of a unique case.
"There's no other western country, western democracy in the world that has a demographic like New Zealand's where 35 percent of the population lives in one city and then the next biggest city is only about 10 percent."
Mr Brown said he would encourage other councils to "take a deep breath" and watch how they go.
NZPA
