Planning a three-year programme to improve Bermuda's capital while fighting off Government's attempts to take all his power that is the daunting task facing new Hamilton Mayor Charles Gosling who hopes his conciliatory style can take the sting out of the looming threat.

Government's abolition plan acted as a galvanising force helping Mr. Gosling assemble a team of candidates to run as aldermen and councillors each one was elected at the June election.

"I would hope this threat is a means by which Government are encouraging us for serious change.

"I am hoping what may have become a confrontational relationship over the last number of years would go back to the previous arrangement between the Corporation and Government an alliance."

Mr. Gosling has had three meetings with the Corporation 200-plus staff who he described as still upbeat, despite the axe hanging over the Corporation.

Government has pledged jobs won't be lost when it takes over the Corporation, which it has labelled "impractical" and "unwieldy."

The two concepts don't add up said Mr. Gosling, who helps run his family's drinks business.

"If we were being taken over by a company the first thing I would do is make sure we had plenty of empty cardboard boxes in my office.

"If they are talking about efficiencies one of the major costs is the staffing expense."

And he argued that 200-plus staff was not too many for such a small geographical area.

"Given the issues we are addressing with north east Hamilton I think the overall upkeep of the city is pretty darn good.

"It is a showcase and people are quite delighted when they come to the city. Compare it with similar municipalities elsewhere I think the Corporation takes care of the City of Hamilton pretty well."

He is due to meet next week with Walter Roban, the Government Minister charged with dealing with the Corporation take over.

Confrontation is not Mr. Gosling's way and he sees the talks with Government as an opportunity to come up with a new Corporation of Hamilton to better serve residents and businesses within the City.

Mr. Gosling said he was ready for serious change most importantly in extending the franchise to all voters in the City who are registered for national elections.

At the moment the City has a convoluted voting system. To be eligible, voters must be owning or renting a residential or business unit within the city and not be more than three months in arrears with Corporation taxes.

If there is a home where there is a husband and wife with adult children then only the husband and wife are eligible to vote.

If the adult children are legally additional leasees or owners then only one of the adults can be the nominee for the whole group. If there are two adults not married and they are either on the lease or joint owners then only one of them can vote. Businesses which are paid up get one vote each.

Mr. Gosling said: "It's fundamentally important that any Bermudian residing within the boundaries of the Corporation should be entitled to a vote, it should not be tied to whether they are a tax payer or whether they are in good standing. That's ripe for change."

However Mr. Gosling defended the property vote, despite being unable to name a single example of such a franchise in a city anywhere else in the world.

"Businesses have a right to a voice in determining the future of the city."

He said if the property vote was removed most of the Corporation politicians or 'board' as he likes to call them would not be eligible to stand for election as the rules state those running must be tied to the city in some way.

Thus the property vote gives the City a large amount of expertise to draw on, argues Mr. Gosling.

Removing the stipulation of requiring a stake in the City before people could stand might be another approach but Mr. Gosling said that could attract all sorts of candidates with no genuine interest in the City.

Even if the franchise was extended to all registered voters it would mean around 1,500 on the City electoral roll.

Some might argue that with one mayor, three aldermen and five common councillors Hamilton was vastly overstocked by politicians but Mr. Gosling believes elected officials take a personal interest in getting things done. "I don't think you would necessarily get that from an organisation that was purely bureaucratic."

Already the Corporation is changing said Mr. Gosling who revealed twice monthly meetings of Corporation politicians had fallen to once a month. "One of the reasons we have cut back is we are trying to empower our staff."

He said basic stuff was unnecessarily going to various committees and politicians who should not be there to micromanage.

"We hope things will go through a damn sight faster than they have in the past. On the day of the election we had 11 committees, we are now down to six."

Amalgamations have streamlined the process, freed up management's time and got rid of unnecessary overlap, he said.

Now the City is looking for knowledgeable members of the public to participate in the remaining committees to give expert opinion. And from next year a healthy fee could be the reward.

Mr. Gosling is pushing ahead with his plan to pay consultants to committees, as well as pay for Corporation politicians like himself for time put in. "Within the next couple of months we will be bringing in our first public members."

He won't reveal what sort of figures he has in mind for either but said it will be looked at for next year's budget.

"The Corporation is in good financial stead, but we aren't looking for these to be salaried positions. But at the same time we are not looking at a little stipend like you get for a Government board meeting." He said he wanted proper compensation for an expert's time.

Mr. Gosling doesn't hold out any hope of those committees being opened for public viewing, particularly as the Corporation does not have protection against libel afforded to MPs in Parliament. "There is a little bit of poking around in the dark as we move forward.

"But our intent is, as much as possible, to get rid of this silly notion of horrendous decisions being made behind closed doors in some smoky atmosphere. The Corporation is not run that way, while we are open, but I also need to make sure that members are properly protected."

Mr. Gosling, a former Chamber of Commerce head, said he expects his own workload to echo that heading the Chamber sometimes taking up all his time, sometimes needing very little.

"Certainly within the first year I think it is going to demand an excessive amount of time. But I am enjoying it.

"The team and I are having a great time of working on ways we can move forward, things we can make tick along even better than before."

There's a plan for another storey at the Cavendish car park. More radical traffic measures such as car pooling and congestion charges would need the approval of Government said Mr. Gosling.

"We really need to stabilise our relationship first before we really came up for some concrete solutions on that."

Asked what excites him most about being mayor he says: "I think we have a wonderful opportunity to bring in certain sectors of the community that have felt disenfranchised before.

"I also think we have a wonderful opportunity with a reduced waterfront plan of creating something which will be such an asset to the City."

He wants to move the docks to open up more space for waterfront development.

"The ideal place to put them would be on the North shore within an easy distance of the City of Hamilton."

Most warehouses were on the outskirts of the city and Government had done some feasibility studies on a possible move that his team would love to see, said Mr. Gosling

Still feeling his way in the post, he's not saying much yet about what he proposes for the waterfront having already signalled a scaling back from the $639 million scheme proposed back in 2006 which would take 20 years to complete.

Mr. Gosling hopes waterfront work can start within his three-year term. If he can get the finger pier going - designed for cruise ships without having them obliterate harbour views - within the next two years he will be happy.

So there you have it helping shape the waterfront while not knowing if his post will last beyond November. But Mr. Gosling is able to juggle both concepts. He has to.

"We are basing our strategic planning on us remaining for three years."

To do any other would invite inertia, suggested Mr. Gosling who compared the situation with human mortality.

"One of these mornings we are all going to wake up and not be there. But are we going to base the rest of our lives on that one morning?"