At the last minute Alexandra vet Andrew Dowling joined small-business owner Nat Jamieson and former council planning and infrastructure manager Louise van der Voort in the contest for the seat.
The vacancy opened following October’s election when councillor-elect Dave McKenzie stepped down days after being elected in the Vincent ward, blaming an online campaign against him.
After an initial slow start the three candidates were nominated within days of the closing date of December 22.
Ms van der Voort worked for the council for 34 years, finishing last year, and served for 20 years on the board of Taituarā — a network of local government professionals. In the October elections she was the next highest polling candidate after Mr McKenzie. However, electoral legislation meant there had to be a by-election and the next highest polling candidate could not move up to the vacant seat.
Mr Jamieson owns two tourism related businesses in Alexandra — a motel and a bike hire and shuttle business — having moved to Central Otago from Southland about three years ago.
He was inspired to stand for election after meeting Central Otago Mayor Tamah Alley to discuss business costs, such as rates, in the region.
"When this by-election came up, she suggested that I run, and I sort of thought about it, and I was a bit hesitant, but then after having a few chats, I just decided, well, there’s no point having these ideas if you’re not prepared to try and get in there and implement them."
"I don’t necessarily see that as a weakness, I think it’s possibly a strength because perhaps when I go in there I’m not going to have that trained thought process about how it needs to be done. I’m hoping I’ll bring a bit of a fresh perspective."
Mr Dowling grew up in Ranfurly and moved to Alexandra about three years ago as a veterinarian with PGG Wrightson.
He was standing because as the closing date approached there were few nominations.
"I think we need to have representation otherwise we’re not represented. And I see this role really as being a voice for the people. So, it’s not so much what I want out of it, it’s saying to people, well what are your issues and what do you want me to represent for you?"
Attracting people to the region was vital for several reasons including needing a skilled workforce and a bigger ratepayer base to pay for vital infrastructure so it wasn’t just coming from the existing ones, he said.
"We’ve got some highly specialised businesses, and I’m not just meaning people with degrees working here, it’s people who are skilled in their trade. Now, we’ve got a region that’s growing and we need to grow because we’ve got a lot of capital works that need doing and we’ve got to pay for them."
Debt was disparaged but there was"good debt and bad debt", Mr Dowling said.
"We need good debt to make sure in 15 years’ time when we flush our toilet, it all disappears."
For many years, people had known our infrastructure was falling apart and it appeared nothing had been done.
"Maybe if we did it 15 years ago it wouldn’t have been as bad. Just tell us the truth and we’ll deal with it."
"If you’re running a project, you don’t go halfway through it, change the project and have to re-engineer it and do half it again."
Mr Dowling had one message in particular he wanted to express to the ward’s ratepayers.
"Vote. Preferably for me but definitely vote."
Ms van der Voort was within 50 votes of beating Mr McKenzie at the last election.
She had not campaigned then as she was overseas the whole time, returning on election day.
However, this time round she was going to be more proactive as there was a lot of change coming at local councils.
"I’m really conscious of the change that’s hitting local government and that will affect the Central Otago District Council and our communities."
Central government’s reform programme, which included abolishing regional councils, was putting a lot on local government, she said.
". . . the district council, through the mayor, have got an opportunity to pull together a plan, work with other mayors and sort of design that a little bit. And I think that’s really important because the outcome of that will be significant to the district.
"And of course, we’ve got [resource management] reform and my background is a resource management planner so I think I’ve got a bit to offer there."
In her 34 years at the council she had worked in most areas, Ms van der Voort said.
"I’d been on the executive for 20 years. I finished my role there halfway through last year but I’ve certainly gathered a lot of experience and knowledge."
After the last election results were announced Mr McKenzie became the target of an online campaign alleging financial impropriety in 2018 while he was working as a contractor to the council.
After initially saying he would not resign, Mr McKenzie did so on October 14, saying online attacks had become "too higher [sic] price to pay".
He said he had made mistakes in 2018 and repaid the council the $1000 at the time but maintained fault lay on both sides.
At the time, Mayor Tamah Alley said a by-election was necessary, despite the cost.
Voting papers will be mailed on January 30 and voting will close on March 3.
