NZ’s youngest mayor has had ‘a fun ride’ so far
Despite a challenging start to his political career, the country’s youngest mayor says "it’s been a fun ride".
Gore Mayor Ben Bell (23) was first left in limbo after the mayoral election was deemed too close to call.
Only after special votes were counted and a potential recount was ruled out could the 23-year-old finally be sworn in on November 9.
"I feel like I have been in [office] a much shorter time, but also really long time at the same time," he said.
"The massive media flow when I first got in made things a whole lot more challenging. But fantastic exposure for Gore at the end of the day."
Mr Bell also faced challenges around his own table when he failed to get his fellow councillors to support his bid for a personal assistant and later when seven councillors opposed his choice of deputy mayor before it was unanimously agreed that Cr Keith Hovell would take up the role instead.
"It’s been a learning experience for me, coming from business into politics, that there is support around me. There’s 12 of us and I’m not doing this by myself," Mr Bell said.
It was one of the many things he had learned during his short time as mayor so far.
"One key takeaway is just understanding how many different topics the mayor has to be over."
It was not a nine-to-five job either, he said.
"I think going in, you know it’s going to be a 24/7 role, but the reality of that is quite different. You’re basically always on call," Mr Bell said.
He was surprised with his role’s level of involvement with issues beyond the Gore District.
"Even for quite a relatively small district, we have quite a bit of influence on some of those more regional and also national-level issues.
"The other thing that you don’t realise outside of the job is the amount you work with other mayors and other councils around the region and the country."
His biggest takeaway though had been the community support, he said.
"There’s been a massive amount of community support across the board."
He was now looking forward to starting work on fulfilling his election promises.
"That’s making a real push in recycling this year, getting a long-term plan for our rural roads and working on our river as well," he said.
Lewers feels time in office is passing quickly
The past 100 days are a "warning" of how quickly three years can go, for Queenstown-Lakes Mayor Glyn Lewers.
The one-term councillor won the local election race in October by almost 600 votes, and said he has had a share of highlights and lowlights in his term so far.
His number one highlight was easy to identify — it was his first citizenship ceremony, closely followed by the Diwali celebrations at the end of October.
His biggest confrontation was the settlement process over the leaky Oaks Shores Resort, in which unit owners had been suing the Queenstown Lakes District Council, and other parties, for $162.9 million, Mr Lewers said.
The council settled for a confidential amount.
However, the silver lining was seeing the council work together throughout the process and it gave him confidence in the team, he said.
In 2023, the mayor prioritised achieving long-term goals with Zero Carbon 2030 and the destination management plan.
In the short term, public transport was top of the list, after being "disappointed" with Otago Regional Council’s recent statement and the deadline extension to June for a full bus timetable in Queenstown.
On the positive side, he was excited to get along to the district’s events, looking forward to judging condiments for the Lake Hayes A&P Show taking place today.
He made it clear he wanted to remain a spectator for the show’s highly-anticipated newest event, hobby horsing.
His diary was quickly filling up and his downtime was spent ticking off "the domestic chores" — cleaning the house.
He also made an effort to spend any free time with his partner and two boys in their early teens, joking he usually had to "drag them [outside]" to go on walks.
He went to the gym to get the stress out when he could, and had been reflecting on how fast the past 100 days had gone by, he said.
"It reminds you, you haven’t got much time [in the council term] to get everything done."
Despite the revelation, Mr Lewers was excited for 2023 and getting into the community as much as possible.
Placing importance on maintaining unity
Southland Mayor Rob Scott says his "Big Brother" travel app has obliterated his Southland map with red pins.
During the past 100 days, he has attended as many community board meetings as possible to induct board members and listen to community perspectives .
"You can’t say I haven’t been getting out and about around Southland ... with the odd little extension to Nelson, Palmerston North and Wellington."
Governance members in late 2022 attended a retreat held at Jericho Holiday Camp for team-building and brainstorming ideas.
Mr Scott believed collective council goals were important to achieve to maintain unity.
"There’s so much going on in the sector and in the world at the moment. It’s very easy to focus on the daily grind and then you can miss out on the productive stuff."
Mr Scott was optimistic about the future and he was satisfied all council and community board members were there for the right reasons.
He felt there was an air of positivity and motivation around the initial board meetings.
"The new councillors have all commented on how welcome they feel. There’s no cliques between the old and the new. We’re all one team, which is really good.
"For Southland to work well, be have to use the strength of our community boards — that community-up approach, rather than top-down.
"We need to give them our full support to enable them to do that as as easily as possible."
While some quality time had been taken out with the family or at blended work-family events, his brain had not stopped processing endless streams of information.
"I was supposed to have a holiday over the last couple of weeks, but that hasn’t really happened."
He had begun to jot stuff down to help make informed decisions rather than "massive knee-jerk changes".
"You see, a lot of people in these sorts of roles come in, they flex their muscles, and throw their weight around. But you’ve got to have an actual team behind you."
Efficiencies could be dealt with along the way but the new foundations were more important at this stage, he said.
By Toni McDonald
Museum go-ahead an early win for Clark
Though serving as Invercargill’s deputy mayor for a tumultuous three years was tough at times and had him unsure about his future, Nobby Clark’s first 100 days in the top job have gone well.
While it’s a given there are some issues that aren’t always agreed upon, he feels the Invercargill City Council table is a well co-ordinated machine that often gets a good consensus.
"A good example of that was the decision very early on to commit to getting a new museum built within three years," he said.
"This has been a contentious issue for the best part of 15-20 years, people just never agreed on the way forward, there's lots of different options.
"But at the end of the day it all came together — an unanimous vote, which was probably unheard of and surprised a lot of people."
There's a good vibe in the city, he said, which he attributed to a number of developments including the varying stages of opening at the Invercargill Central mall, and the work that has been done around Esk and Don Sts.
"We've probably got, per capita, more development going on than anywhere else in the country, and people don't know a lot of it, but we've got a huge amount.
"So running through that list, I'm picking that Tiwai will probably stay, that's just my personal view but I think they will — the whole issue of the hydrogen generation plant is on the horizon and not too far out. Some of the major players are coming into picture with Meridian and Contact Energy, Woodside Energy, a big international company based in Australia, so that's absolutely huge on lots of levels."
The plant will be substantial to build, he said, and about 2000 workers will be required, putting pressure on the city for amenities, especially for housing, which will require some creative work.
He said the arrival of Functional Foods (plant-based beverage manufactures looking at producing oat milk), salmon farms and a data bank will further boost the city’s economic growth.
Some of the challenges facing the council include a secure water supply for the city which will face pressure from the arrival of new industries, and the issue of traffic on the newly developed Esk St, which has seen some contention from the public.
"So these are exciting times, but they are times that put a little bit of pressure on the community, particularly on the availability of power — some of these things require quite a bit of that."
Christmas parade a highlight for Radich
Meeting and greeting have occupied a lot of Jules Radich’s time since he became Dunedin’s mayor last year.
Initially, there seemed to be little time for him to catch his breath, but he was feeling more settled now, he said.
"The first 100 days have been very much an introduction to City Hall and its day-to-day operation," Mr Radich said.
He described the environment as busy and said interacting with various people was an aspect of the role he enjoyed.
Joining the Christmas parade was a highlight.
One low point came when the Government announced $110 million of extra funding to build the new Dunedin Hospital would be accompanied by design changes aimed at trimming $90 million to keep a budget blowout in check.
"The population of Dunedin, Otago and Southland would like to see the hospital built to the original business case that was agreed," Mr Radich said.
The mayor initially welcomed the Government’s announcement, saying it provided some certainty, but his tone has since shifted.
He warned against creating a facility with inadequate capacity.
Other areas of focus for him have included "building up the beach" at St Clair and retaining "flexibility" in the redevelopment of George St, if possible.
Mr Radich has advocated for restoration of a groyne at St Clair Beach and he expected the issue to be resolved in the not-too-distant future.
Other matters on his mind included inflation, interest rates and how economic development could be enhanced.
Mr Radich said he was optimistic about Dunedin’s prospects.
By Grant Miller
