And people should not wish for a city-wide ward, or the voice of Dunedin's diverse set of communities could be lost at council.
University of Otago political studies lecturer Associate Prof Janine Hayward said if residents of wider Dunedin wanted someone representing their views to council, they needed to, where possible, vote for their community boards.
This year, more Dunedin community board members are retiring from local body politics than at each of the past three elections.
Thirteen incumbents stood down pre-election, including long-serving members Jan Tucker, who served on the Chalmers Community Board for 15 years, John Bellamy and Bill Allen, who both served 11 years on the Otago Peninsula Community Board, and Ernie Ball, who served 12 years with the Saddle Hill Community Board.
West Harbour residents this year have a real chance to influence how they are represented to council, as the biggest contest for a seat at a board table in a decade plays out, with 12 people standing for the six places on the Chalmers Community Board.
Prof Hayward said that was good news.
It was ''really important'' for people to vote so they were confident the people who represented them were also going to do a good job of representing their communities to council.
''I hope the fact that there are more people standing at Chalmers than ever before also reflects the fact people are beginning to see that and value the role that those representatives have to play.''
The point of community boards was to balance the power of council against the interest of its various communities, she said.
This year, three of the city's six community boards have been elected unopposed, although that still means four new faces around the Mosgiel Taieri Community Board table, two new members on the Waikouaiti Coast board and one on the Strath Taieri board.
There has been consternation from members of the public outside the central ward that they cannot vote for the ward where the majority of councillors come from.
Those upset about not being able to vote for more councillors should be careful, Prof Hayward warned.
It was unfortunate that having a large central ward with just a few people elected outside of it seemed to have created ''a bit of us and them'', she said.
That detracted from the fact that the value of retaining the city's two other small wards was that the people who lived there could absolutely guarantee that the person they had elected was supposed to represent them.
The danger in people wanting to be part of the central ward was that 14 people who lived next door to each other in one part of the community could be elected.
''And then what will those from the very small boards be saying about that?''
''I really hope they can appreciate that actually if they can get good representation for themselves, that's a far more valuable thing to take to the council table.''
