No intention of giving up chains

On a sunny Invercargill morning, Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt enters his mayoral chambers a little later than anticipated — he has been held up at a previous engagement.

He is wearing a navy blue suit.

His face is lined, showing all of his 73 years.

He looks tired.

There could be a reason for this — in fact there could be more than one. If he were the Queen, he might even describe 2020 as his council’s annus horribilis.

The present

He immediately apologises.

Today is a busy day: there are some public engagements, this interview (which lasts just more than an hour) and three back-to-back council meetings.

Sir Tim chuckles and makes comment about people thinking he is on holiday.

It is at one of these council meetings today that Rugby Park will be discussed — again.

This was one of the ongoing unresolved issues which led to the council attracting attention from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) this year.

The cash-strapped charitable trust that owns Rugby Park

is in talks with the council about the change of ownership.

As well as the DIA investigation and review, there have been two code of conduct complaints against councillors, a resignation from deputy mayor Toni Biddle and a global pandemic to contend with, he says.

It is the DIA investigation, and the subsequent report, which Sir Tim finds most upsetting.

The report, produced by independent reviewer Richard Thomson, highlighted concerns of a leadership void and stated there was a consensus Sir Tim was unable to fulfil significant aspects of his role.

Sir Tim’s frustration at the report prompted him to speak out in a council press conference, when the councillors and the chief executive Clare Hadley thought they were about to put up a united front to media.

Today, he calls the report unjust.

"I think they’ve [DIA] been particularly harsh, especially on me, of course.

"I don’t mind admitting I made mistakes and that, but to get stuck in, in the way that they have, it’s just shattering."

For Sir Tim, the angst among councillors is a new phenomenon.

However, he believes that with five people on the council already eyeing up his mayoral chains, it is causing issues.

"We never, in 27 years, had conduct critical of the mayor or councillors between each other. It just got sorted out.

"Everyone wants the job. That’s the thing — not only are you up against ratepayer organisations and that, you’re up against your own council half the time because they want to be the mayor."

It is unlikely councillors are about to join hands and sing Kumbaya, but he knows the job they do and the scrutiny they get is relentless.

"When you put 13, 14 or 12 people ... lock them in a room for three years and spend $100million a year and you’re in a fish bowl where you’re being criticised for just about everything you do or can’t do and you’ve just got to make it work — you just try to make it work."

What Sir Tim finds most surprising is that he has not really changed the way he has done the job since he first took on the mayoral chains in 1993.

He is still a figurehead who wants to make sure Invercargill is remembered. His role is more one of a marketer, he says — just like it has always been.

"Everyone thinks you run the city but you don’t. It’s a very difficult job to understand because there’s no job description.

"It would be the only job where you get a salary and a car and a private secretary, and nothing to spell out what you’re meant to do.

"So you just have a look at the environment and get stuck in and give it your best shot, and people judge you every three years on whether you’ve done a good job or not, and that determines whether you do another three years — and on and on it goes."

The year has been not just hard on him, but also on Asha Dutt, his partner. She supports him and is pivotal to his work, he says.

"I think it’s really hard. It’s been a hard year.

"People think it’s just a hoot because they often see you cutting ribbons and telling funny stories and that ... that’s important too, but boy the wear and tear — you come up against issues you’re not really equipped that well to handle."

So why, then, does he think this year is particularly bad?

"I think Covid-19 ... the most significant plague has taken place and it’s made everyone insecure."

To forge a path ahead, he believes getting work done will conquer all.

"I think the only way you can overcome that conflict is to go and do it and succeed.

"Nothing beats success in politics and, I mean, I’ve had some spectacular successes."

The past

Invercargill resident Mary Ward wrote a letter in 1992.

The letter was addressed to a friend, a former co-worker of her husband Joe who had worked with him at the Manapouri Power Station in 1967.

Back in the 1960s, a 20-ish Tim Shadbolt had been invited to a party at Mrs Ward’s house.

He had impressed her because he was the only one of her husband’s mates who came into the kitchen at the end of the night and helped with the dishes.

On occasion, she would put a blanket over him when he fell asleep on the kitchen floor.

In the letter she wrote a quarter of a decade later, she asked whether Mr Shadbolt, as he was then, would consider standing as an Invercargill mayoral candidate in the next local body election.

In the time between Manapouri and Invercargill, Tim had been busy.

He became a political activist, helped set up a commune where he lived for five years, was a concrete contractor, promotions manager for a car dealership and, of course, Mayor of Waitemata City.

He had lost the Auckland mayoralty in 1989 and, as he describes in his book, Tim Shadbolt: A Mayor of Two Cities, then spent three years being "divorced from reality".

He also tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to play at other council gigs.

But it was Mrs Ward’s letter which changed his course.

At the time, it came as an easy decision, Sir Tim says.

"I was in a stage of my life having a bit of a mid-life crisis and I thought, ‘wow it will probably never happen but I’ll say yes anyway’."

He accepted the invitation and before long arrived — unannounced, after having hitch-hiked to Invercargill — outside Mrs Ward’s brother Ewen’s secondhand shop, House of Many Treasures, in an articulated Kenworth truck.

"He had holes in his shoes, buttons missing off his shirt and an Elastoplast on his shirt to hold it together," Mrs Ward said.

At the time, 15 mayoral candidates were running in the by-election, which had come as a result of Mayor Eve Poole dying in office.

After she had sewn the buttons back on the new candidate’s shirt and done his laundry, and Frank Goodall, owner of a local footwear store, had given him a new pair of shoes, Mrs Ward and her brother converted an office at the back of a shop into campaign headquarters.

The campaign strategy was to get him out in the community to meet as many people as possible.

The Wards’ links to sporting organisations — only one of the seven siblings had not represented Southland — and a variety of other organisations had him visiting everywhere, including the Alliance Freezing Works.

Mrs Ward knew if people could meet him, they would see what he could offer the city — "a breath of fresh air".

Mrs Ward says it was his ability to "charm the knickers off a nun" which saw him elected with 10,078 votes, a winning margin of 4326.

The result left the mayor surprised.

"Yes I was, because my prejudice about Invercargill was that they seem to have this image of being really conservative and, of course, having been arrested 33 times and being in jail twice and spending five years in periodic detention centres, I didn’t think I’d have a chance with that sort of background.

"But the attitude was proven to be quite the opposite. They embraced you as a bit of a naughty wag."

Invercargill at the time was, to put it mildly, downtrodden.

The Ocean Beach freezing works at Bluff had closed, the last of the Tiwai development had finished and people were leaving in droves.

According to Sir Tim’s former deputy mayor of 11 years, Neil Boniface, the late 1980s and early 1990s were dire for the city.

"There was a joke that the last one to leave Invercargill had to turn the lights off," Mr Boniface said.

Sir Tim could see this too, but he could also see what needed to be done.

"Well, basically, my view was that we were [shaped by] the tyranny of distance — out of sight out of mind, and I was going to put this city on the map.

He took "more of a sort of marketing approach to it, rather than a conventional approach".

This time of despair and evacuation led a group of community leaders to band together to try to pump some optimism and get people into the city by way of some inventive ideas.

Sir Tim and representatives from the Southern Institute of Technology, ILT (then the Invercargill Licensing Trust) and the Community Trust of Southland were just the ticket.

Around the table, collective heads were put together and ideas such as the Zero Fees scheme — apparently scribbled down by Southern Institute of Technology chief executive Penny Simmonds on a serviette at a hotel on Stewart Island, Stadium Southland, a new swimming pool and the upgrade of the Civic Theatre were all discussed.

Sir Tim says it is the Zero Fees initiative which has been the highlight of his mayoral career — so far.

Along with the successes, there have been some failures. The international airport never quite took off, and sending a contingent of four engineers to China to investigate lighting for the city also backfired.

"It spawned a whole lot of jokes about how many Invercargill engineers does it take to change a light bulb," he says.

"That’s the only way to handle failure, is you just make fun of it. You win some and you lose some."

The future

In 2008, Sir Tim told a reporter he would like to stay in the job until he was 70.

He laughs now as he is reminded of that statement.

"Oh. Oh no.

"I know when I was a radical student I said you can’t trust anyone over 30. Then I moved it to 40 when I got older."

He believes the age can still be moved out further, and while he mainly talks of past successes, he still believes there is work to be done for this city.

The council is looking at a housing project for more affordable homes in Invercargill, and although Sir Tim says it is not a "setting the world on fire project", he knows it will be a pivotal one for the continued growth and progression of the city.

"Our council just recently has been in negotiations of a property capable of taking 600 houses and that will make a real impact on the situation."

It is this making a difference for people which is his motivation for continually putting himself forward for the the job, he says, adding that politics, at any level, can be quite addictive.

"I know you win some and you lose some, but the winning of some projects, like Zero Fees, is just so enhancing it makes you so proud.

"Especially when you’ve been fighting to achieve it. It just stays with you for the rest of your life."

Next year, the court case in which Sir Tim is suing the council for costs associated with the defamation case brought against him by Karen Arnold will continue.

Despite winning the case in 2018 and being awarded costs by the judge, Ms Arnold was adjudged bankrupt and Sir Tim was left with a hefty legal bill to pay.

This year, Sir Tim filed legal proceedings against the council to the tune of $448,000 (he was awarded about $186,000 at the time of the trial).

The Invercargill City Council has chosen to defend the case.

He brushes over whether he would still be working if it were not for this case, only adding that one can never predict what the future will hold.

And while he knows he may not be everyone’s choice for mayor, he is adamant he will stay put for now and will stand again at the next election.

"The only thing I can say about the future with any degree of certainty is I’m not a quitter so I don’t give up, no matter what the situation is. So long as the people keep voting me in, I’ll keep running."

karen.pasco@odt.co.nz

Key dates

• February 19, 1947: Born in Remuera, Auckland
• 1967: Started work, in construction, at Manapouri Power Station
• 1983: Successfully stood in Waitemata mayoral election
• 1990: Unsuccessfully stood for West Auckland  in general election
• 1990-92:  Unsuccessfully stood in Auckland City mayoral by-election, 
• Dunedin mayoral election
• 1992: Hitch-hiked to Invercargill on the back of a truck before the election
• 1992: Successfully stood in Invercargill mayoral by-election
• 1994: Stood as New Zealand First candidate in  Selwyn by-election 
• 1995: Lost the Invercargill mayoral race to David Harrington
• 1998: Won the Invercargill mayoral race 
• 2001:  Only candidate to stand in Invercargill mayoral race
• 2004-19: Successive wins in the Invercargill mayoral race

Election results

• 2019: 9672 votes (other mayoral votes combined 10,350)
• 2016: 11,618 (9316)
• 2013: 12,050 (5459)
• 2010: 16,466 (6043)
• 2007: 15,627 (3159)
• 2004: 16,704 (2866)
• 2001: Won outright — no other candidates
• 1998: 13,962 (12,976)
• 1995: 6543 (second to Dave Harrington)
• 1993: 10,078 (20,085)