Jules Radich comfortably defeated one-term mayor Aaron Hawkins and nine other candidates in the mayoralty contest, preliminary results released on Saturday night show.
He is to talk to Dunedin City Council chief executive Sandy Graham this morning, and his packed programme for the week includes mayoralty training in Wellington on Wednesday.
Mr Radich (67) was elevated to the mayoralty after one term as a city councillor.
The dancing he was required to do yesterday was both embarrassing and enjoyable, he said.
Opposition to changing Dunedin’s main shopping street, George St, to a one-way street was one notable stand from him in the past term.
Another was his defence of the State Highway 1 one-way pair of routes amid suggestions a two-way model should be considered.
Top-polling councillor Sophie Barker said she was happy to work with Mr Radich.
Big issues in the next term would include Three Waters, resource management reform, George St and the SH1 one-way system, she said.
‘‘There’s a lot going on.’’
Mr Hawkins had done a good job, but the call for change was strong, she said.
Mr Weatherall and Mr Gilbert were on Mr Radich’s Team Dunedin ticket.
Bill Acklin, who left the council in 2013 after three terms, will return to the table.
Mr Radich said he felt sad for two-term councillor Rachel Elder, the highest-polling unsuccessful candidate.
Cr Elder had been a consistent advocate for South Dunedin, cycling infrastructure and for the disadvantaged in society, he said.
She was prominent in calling for development of a cycling trail between Dunedin and Mosgiel, featuring two disused railway tunnels, and councillors endorsed acceleration of the project when they approved the 2022-23 annual plan.
Cr Lee Vandervis, who was fourth in the mayoralty contest behind Mr Hawkins and Cr Barker, called Mr Radich’s win a landslide.
He said the mayor-elect had received a welcome mandate to ‘‘undo the disastrous debt-funded ideologies’’ of the past three years and get some sustainable solutions for Dunedin’s problems.
Cr Vandervis said he was looking forward to reduced borrowing, better traffic flow and parking, deferred cycleways and an ‘‘inexpensive, practical groyne experiment for St Clair’’.
Mr Radich has been a consistent advocate for trialling restoration of a line of poles that together would form a groyne, which he has argued should restore the beach at St Clair.
