{"id":516215,"date":"2026-07-08T18:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516215\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T18:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:31:14","slug":"northland-mayor-should-be-chosen-by-voters-in-any-future-single-council-ex-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516215\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland mayor should be chosen by voters in any future single council \u2013 ex-councillor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vincent said a single unitary council<\/a> made the most sense \u201cif there is to be any possibility of improvement over the status quo\u201d. <\/p>\n

The proposed model would combine Whang\u0101rei, Kaipara<\/a> and Far North<\/a> district councils with Northland Regional Council<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He said Northland\u2019s Local Government Reform Elected Member Steering Group<\/a> would decide how many councillors a unitary authority would have and how they would be distributed across the region. <\/p>\n

Vincent supported using the Single Transferable Vote (STV)<\/a> system for elections. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would enable more representative results if the STV voting system is employed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this would avoid situations such as Kaipara\u2019s 2025 mayoral election under First Past the Post (FPP), where three of the four candidates each received about 30% of the vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd who knows, it may have changed the outcome of the 2025 local election\u2019s Otamatea Ward voting where there were three people each within three votes of each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

Northland currently has 43 elected councillors, mayors and a regional council chair across its four councils. Far North District Council also has 19 community board members, bringing the total number of elected local government representatives in the region to 62. <\/p>\n

That equates to one elected representative for every 3245 residents, about 45% higher than the national average. <\/p>\n

Vincent said a new Northland unitary authority should have seven or eight wards, each represented by one or more councillors.<\/p>\n

However, he warned against stopping there, saying Northland risked losing local representation under the current system. <\/p>\n

He said another layer of representation was needed through ward councils or local boards. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of wards and elected ward representatives should be related to population and ward land area to reflect communities of interest and provide the most practical coverage.\u201d <\/p>\n

Vincent said local boards should have delegated functions, plans, budgets and resources, with responsibilities clearly divided between the unitary council and local boards. <\/p>\n

\"MarkMark Vincent during his time as Kaipara District councillor. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n

Allowing boards to make decisions would ensure those most affected by issues have a direct role in determining outcomes, he said.<\/p>\n

Vincent said each local board should include the area\u2019s elected unitary councillor, though that person should not serve as board chair, helping facilitate two-way communication between the unitary council and local communities. <\/p>\n

He said boards must be given genuine powers rather than only an advisory role. <\/p>\n

WDC Whang\u0101rei M\u0101ori Ward councillor Deborah Harding asked how M\u0101ori representation could fit within the model. <\/p>\n

Vincent said it could include a M\u0101ori ward if the steering group decided on one, or iwi representation on local boards. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see it counted in or counted out by what I\u2019m proposing,\u201d Vincent said.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vincent said a single unitary council made the most sense \u201cif there is to be any possibility of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[112671,1124,5195,3595,5842,13083,5205,38290,15559,256320,2740,3273,78,47532,23157,10934,111,43,139,1067,69,381,312,3271,58218,8238,101480,24687,6923],"class_list":["post-516215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-any","tag-authority","tag-be","tag-by","tag-calling","tag-chosen","tag-council","tag-councillor","tag-elected","tag-excouncillor","tag-former","tag-future","tag-in","tag-inevitable","tag-kaipara","tag-mayor","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-region","tag-says","tag-should","tag-single","tag-under","tag-unitary","tag-voters","tag-what"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}