Change is healthy

When Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin spoke to the final city council meeting earlier this month, his words read like a valedictory speech, a farewell from office, and such has proved to be the case.

His campaign offered few positive ideas for the future for worried Dunedin ratepayers and residents, especially given the debt load agreed by the two councils Mr Chin had led for the past six years.

He may be remembered with greater charity in the decades ahead, as he had hoped, but on Saturday voters punished him as harshly as they did two other senior city councillors associated with him, Richard Walls - a former mayor - and Michael Guest.

Those especially who supported the council's share of funding the Forsyth Barr Stadium did not appear to be wounded by voters, despite so much negative campaigning by groups such as DCC Inc (formerly Stop The Stadium): seven were re-elected.

It was, after all, not a particularly logical reason to vote out Mr Chin and his supporters, but was perhaps understandable.

The Mayor-elect, Dave Cull, has promised to "rebuild trust", "listen to the community", to "cut operating costs" and "limit rate rises to affordable levels" - all fine-sounding sentiments that actually mean not much in practical terms.

The functions of the community plans, which fulfill so much of a local body's capital planning today, provide a formal opportunity for citizens to be heard.

The question of what constitutes "affordable" rates in Dunedin for the next decade or more has essentially been determined by the spending practices and debt commitments of the past two councils.

Mr Cull's Greater Dunedin group, which succeeded with four seats on the council, now has a further opportunity to built itself into a formidable ticket.

The mix of experienced councillors and two novices Richard Thomson and Jinty MacTavish together with the return of Lee Vandervis, imply a council that will acknowledge public concerns and pressures far more promptly than occurred under Mr Chin's leadership, especially in the most recent term.

Fresh faces abounded elsewhere in Otago as voters sought change.

Significantly, several of the new district mayors also campaigned on a cost-reducing platform.