Wellington's outgoing mayor has backed her deputy for the top job – and delivered a withering appraisal of the seven other candidates in the process.

Celia Wade-Brown revealed she would rank Justin Lester No 1 on her voting paper for October's election.

She also took something of a parting shot at the other contenders for her job, labelling them a mix of disruptive, dishonest and lacking the breadth of knowledge required to be mayor of the capital city.

ROBERT KITCHIN/FAIRFAX NZ Wellington mayoral candidate Justin Lester.

Wade-Brown, 60, announced in August she would stand down after more than 20 years on Wellington City Council, the past six in charge.

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She was keen to promote consensus and collegiality around the council table. But by the end, presided over an arguably divided council.

In her eyes, Lester was the most capable of the eight mayoral candidates on offer to promote consensus.

"It's just his way of working … although he's a member of the Labour Party, he doesn't just work with Labour councillors or Greens. He works with everyone."

Lester would do the best job of working with council chief executive Kevin Lavery, who was "talented and communicative, but can be a little strong-minded sometimes", she said.

Lester, 37, has spent the past six years on the council, three of those as deputy mayor.

He thanked Wade-Brown for acknowledging the hard work he had put in during that time, but said he was not one to go courting endorsements.

"I'm accountable to Wellingtonians. Their endorsement, through voting for me, is what's most important to me," he said.

Jo Coughlan. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON JO COUGHLAN

Describes her as "relentlessly positive" and someone who would never say a bad word about Wellington. But her biggest fault is too little attention to detail, evidenced by her failure to answer what the council's current debt level was during a televised debate, and her "four lanes to the planes" campaign slogan, when the idea is to have two lanes in either direction. She thinks "No Jo" would be more accurate than her "Go Jo" slogan, "because she has said 'no' to [slower] central city speed limits, 'no' to microchipping cats ... 'no' to light rail and 'no' to the living wage".

COUGHLAN RESPONDS

Disagrees with Wade-Brown's assessment of her attention to detail. Points out she knows what the council's debt is but simply "fluffed" an answer on television. "And of course 'four lanes' is two lanes each way. I am not wanting eight lanes to the planes. If I did, I would say that." Says it's a bit rich for Wade-Brown to call her out on details when she got the name of England cricket captain Eoin Morgan wrong in 2015. Also points out she has said 'yes' to plenty of things, including the Let's Get Welly Moving project, the film museum and convention centre, the tech hub, establishing an economic development agency, a harbourside cycleway, and long-haul flights

Nicola Young. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON NICOLA YOUNG

Describes Young as "desperately negative". "I thought Nicola was going to be a lot of fun [when she joined the council] … but she's spent so much of her time sniping at other people." Believes Young is contradicting herself by supporting expensive initiatives like the movie museum and convention centre, then voting against the rates rises needed to fund them, all while promising to freeze rates if elected mayor. "I just see that as dishonest."

YOUNG RESPONDS

Says sticking up for the communities she represents is more important than being a lot of fun. Points out it is her job to voice opposition to projects she does not agree with, such as the Island Bay cycleway, which "poisoned this council". "Celia takes being challenged personally; I prefer to play the ball, not the person." Says she will find plenty of "waste" to cut as mayor, such as mayoral travel. "I'm delighted to be the mayoral candidate that Celia doesn't want to win."

Nick Leggett. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON NICK LEGGETT

Questions whether he really is intent on listening to the community, when he "certainly didn't listen to the community on the super-city" proposal, which was largely unpopular with the public. Also says Leggett's transport polices are too "car-focused" and his plan to have community-based councillor clinics and a committee structure with rotating chairs, will put him offside with councillors. "I'm not sure, given the mud he's thrown at this city and the way the councillors work, whether he will find it easy to work with the returned councillors, let alone the new ones."

LEGGETT RESPONDS

The Porirua mayor says he would be happy to compare his record of building successful, cohesive and united teams with Wade-Brown's any day of the week. "If you want to talk about focusing on one mode of transport, with all due respect to Celia, I wouldn't be asking for advice from her given the cycling debacle." Says Wellingtonians will decide in October whether they prefer a continuation of her "dogmatic agenda and party political style" with Lester as mayor, or someone "fresh".

Helene Ritchie. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON HELENE RITCHIE

Says Ritchie is "occasionally brilliant" but she could struggle to collaborate with others, given how disruptive she is during council meetings. Believes that after 30 years as a councillor, she still "fails to understand" the rules that apply to those meetings. "She'll call a point of order just because she disagrees with something - that's not a point of order."

RITCHIE RESPONDS

Says Wade-Brown's backing of Lester could be the "kiss of death" for his campaign. Says she has always been outspoken, and will use her "record of effective leadership, significant achievements, and collaboration" to proudly lead Wellington as mayor.

Andy Foster. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON ANDY FOSTER

Describes him as an "honest guy" but his strength is also his downfall: too much attention to detail. "He gets into the management detail a little too often … [as mayor] you shouldn't be actually trying to do the design, that's what we have professionals for." Says Foster could struggle to get enough councillors onside: "He will work something out and be pretty convinced that he's right, and quite a lot of other people are wrong."

FOSTER RESPONDS

Says Wade-Brown's assessment feels a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. "As a councillor she's been great, but as a mayor she's been flicking between big picture stuff and small detail stuff, and not being able to distinguish between the two." Points out Wade-Brown has struggled to corral her council into consensus. "It's been blatantly obvious." Says he will, as mayor, work out what every councillor wants to achieve and formulate it into a coherent strategy.

Keith Johnson. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON KEITH JOHNSON

Says he is "quite considered" in his approach to issues, and may have made a good councillor. But his policy of no new projects for three years would not be good for Wellington.

JOHNSON RESPONDS

Says the city council can't keep "loading up new projects ad infinitum", with residential rates rising 5.4 per cent this year and debt set to "blow out" to over $800 million in the next nine years.

Johnny Overton. Photo: Fairfax NZ

WADE-BROWN ON JOHNNY OVERTON

Says that, with more than 30 community gardens in Wellington, the city doesn't need a self-styled "guerrilla gardener" in charge. "I've seen very little information about his views on anything. He doesn't seem to get back to people, and if you can't get back to people when you're a mayoral candidate, how are you going to connect with people when you're mayor?"

OVERTON RESPONDS

Says he "couldn't care less" what Wade-Brown thinks about him or his chances. "She must realise that I'm not a real contender – [I'll] be lucky to get 100 votes." Says he is often difficult to contact because he's "not hanging out online like most people nowadays, as I'm often up the mountain doing hard yakka in the gardens".

EX-MAYORS BACK COUGHLAN

Justin Lester isn't the only candidate with a Wellington mayor in his corner.

Fran Wilde, who wore the mayoral chains from 1992 to 1995, and Kerry Prendergast, who sat at the head of the city council table from 2001 to 2010, have both thrown their support behind Jo Coughlan.

Wilde said she Coughlan would be the "clear, focused and energetic leader" Wellington needed.

"On the big issues it's the leadership from the mayor that counts. As well as energy, Jo has the experience and maturity to steer Wellington through the next few years," Wilde said.

Kerry Prendergast. Photo: Fairfax NZ

Prendergast said Coughlan understood that Wellington needed good, basic foundation infrastructure.

"The port, the airport, good roads, good fibre-optic cabling. Then you have to have a vibrant economy. Something that means people want to come and live here because there are jobs here."