A tale of two mayors

Two years into their mayoral terms, the civic leaders of Wellington and Auckland have pushed through controversy, opposition and calls for their resignationOne is still not a hugger, the other has had to put wild parties behind her. A look at how the mayors of Auckland and Wellington have fared over the last two yearsWhen Wayne Brown started his term as Auckland mayor, he was lambasted for his poor communication, lack of engagement with the media and inability to get consensus around the council table.While in the capital - Tory Whanau's ascension to the mayoralty was heralded as a huge step forward - she was the first wāhine Māori mayor and talked of a progressive future.It's nearly two years into their three year terms and the narrative has somewhat changed - Brown has secured the lowest rates increase of any metropolitan council across the country, while Whanau's left-leaning colleagues have accused her of selling out her progressive stance. On today's episode of The Detail, two New Zealand Herald reporters, Simon Wilson in Auckland and Georgina Campbell in Wellington, analyse how their mayors have performed.Brown notoriously criticised Wilson for being a "prick" just before he became mayor."I'd like to think that my relationship was straightforward with Wayne and his was complicated with me," says Wilson. Brown's performance around the Auckland floods in January 2023 has been widely criticised, and some called for him to resign."He has, from that point, applied himself a lot more diligently to the task," Wilson says.Despite a controversial annual plan process in 2023, Wilson believes Brown has done a better job this year, with the 10 year long-term plan."He had developed stronger relations with councillors by that stage, he had worked out who was going to support him and who wasn't, who was likely to," Wilson says."He had a probably more functional mayor's office by that stage and that meant that the process of establishing the long-term-plan budget was smoother. He didn't get everything he wanted, but he got a much stronger sense of 'we the council are committed to this'."He has kept his rates increases under 10 per cent, which is an enormous achievement in the country at the moment."However, Wilson believes Brown struggles with emotional intelligence."He cannot help himself - he sits in council meetings and quietly manages to say things about other councillors that - if they were sensitive - they'd feel highly abused about."…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details