June 6, 2024 • 19 mins
It has been nearly five years since the Tauranga City Council was sacked by the Government and replaced with Commissioners, after infighting and dysfunction between councillors and the Mayor.
Now, the council is going to return to "full democracy", and a new Mayor and councillors will vote them in next month. Georgina is joined by Bay of Plenty Times senior journalist Kiri Gillespie to discuss what went wrong in 2020, who is running now, and how people in the city feel about the council's return.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
KalDer and welcome to On the Tiles, the Herald's politics podcast.
I'm your host Georgina Campbell and this is a local
edition episode. On July twenty, Todong of voters will take
part in their first city council election since twenty nineteen.
The last council was sacked by the local government minister
(00:24):
and replaced with commissioners whose extended term is about to end.
The election is being held out of sync with national
local body elections, meaning the eight general ward councilors and
the mayor whom voters elect will be in power until
twenty twenty eight, four years instead of the standard three.
There are some high profile names in the mix, such
(00:47):
as Olympic rowing gold medalist Mahi Drysdale and some familiar faces,
including counselors who were booted out by commissioners last time.
Joining us today to discuss who's who is. Assistant news
director and senior journalist for The Bay of Plenty Times
and Rota Daily Post. Kittie galetspek Kyoto Kitty and thanks
(01:07):
for joining us a team.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Can we rewind a bit and start with why totong
It is in this situation. Why was the last democratically
elected council sacked?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I guess to sum it up in one word, and
that would be dysfunction.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So basically they were elected in twenty nineteen. In that
council that was elected then pretty much spent their first
year with a lot of bitter in fighting and one
upmanship and I think it's quoted in the report from the.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Observer team as poor behavior.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And it got to such a point of dysfunction that
the local government minister felt that she had to intervene,
and initially she did so by appointing an observer team
which basically sat in on council meetings and monitored their
interactions and functionality. And at the end of that term
(02:07):
they recommended a Crown Manager be appointed, and it was
that recommendation was met with some reluctance or resistance from
individual counselors for sure, and as a result.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Then mere tenB.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Powell resigned, calling for commissioners to be appointed.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And they were What was the main point of contention
amongst the elected members? Was there a specific thing that
they didn't disagree on or was it just a real
clash of personalities.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Certainly the latter.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
One particular counselor told me quite frankly that if ten B.
Powell was agreeing to anything, then he would vote the
opposite whatever it was. So again, the Observer team mentioned
in their findings that the race for the mayoralty never
really ended and this was quite evident with a lot
(03:11):
of the interactions between the councilors and the mayor, who
was obviously tender power at the time.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So the council was replaced by commissioners. What is the
role of a commissioner.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, in this instance, their role was basically to act
as elected members. They had all the powers available to them,
and their main priority was to get the long term
plan over the line, because there were concerns that that
wasn't going to happen with the former council because of
the dysfunction. So their first priority was really to get
(03:47):
that on the go, and the second priority that they
were tasked with was really to restore trust from the
Totonger community in its council.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Do you think they managed to do that?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I mean it's not been without contention and controversy, and
there's been some pretty high profile and expensive projects that
have kind of gone through under their counsemanship. But ultimately
the general consensus is, yeah, people have faith in the
city again, they like the direction in which it seems
(04:23):
to be going in saying that, of course, there are
pockets in the community that also feel very strongly that
the commissions should shouldn't have signed up for so many things,
and you know, can the city afford it.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So it's not without concern.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
But overall, most of the feedback I certainly come across
as in favor of the commissioners and what they've done.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And so basically they have decision making power right like
a counselor would, but they still have to consult with
the community in the usual way here oral submissions receive
submissions and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's an interesting one.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I mean, technically they don't really have to, but they
certainly put a lot of effort into doing that. There
was a lot of consultation, a lot of community to
get togethers. I went to a couple of you know,
after our meetings with communities where they were held in
like the you know, Mount Mong and Niui golf Club
or you know, the old Hawet Wall things like that
(05:23):
where people would gather, particularly if they were really concerned
about something such as Plan Changed thirty three, which is
all about intensified intensified housing at the mount. You know,
these are highly contentious subjects, but the commissioners were showing
up at these meetings to hear it all from the community,
(05:44):
to get that feedback. And whether or not they took
that feedback on board, you know, it's a story for
another day, but there are certainly consultation there and community
interaction for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
At the very least, they showed face, which is always
a good thing, I think for heated public meetings like those.
So one thing that interested me in reading up before
this episode is that commissioners called on the government to
change the law to allow for a hybrid. Government's arrangement
was four commissioners and five councilors instead of a fully
(06:18):
elected council after this year's election. Can you just explain
that proposal a little bit more and why commissioners thought
that would be a good idea.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, so it was of one of the options that
they were considering, but it was certainly a favored one,
and I recall and telling me a little while ago,
some of the theory behind that was ultimately to ensure
that there was continuity with projects.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So as I think.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Everyone's a weird, Toto is going through a bit of
a transformation right.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Where we're not the small little town it once was.
We were quite thrive and sitting.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
We've got a lot of population and that population set
to so the commissioners have done a lot of things
or put thing a lot of things in place to
really pay for that, and there was serious concerns that
their work would be reversed or undone if the council
(07:17):
was a fully democratically elected council in this year's election.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Okay, And that sort of idea was met with a
bit of pushback, wasn't it. Former Tato in Greek brownness
was pretty unimpressed. What did he say?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So well, Greg, he's an interesting one because he's been
quite open about the fact that he's not against the
appointment of the commissioners in the first place necessary necessarily
forgive me, but rather his concern was about their extension
or their reappointment, which took away the last elections for
(07:59):
Toto on the city, which is why we're having an
election this year, which is out of sink of everybody else.
But his big concern is democracy, So and that was
kind of overruling the threat of whoever may be re
elected or elected in this year's election, So long as
there was an election and everybody there was democratically elected,
(08:20):
that that was his big concern, and he felt that
the commissioners had already robbed the city of democracy by
their reappointment preventing that former election.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That's probably a convoluted way of explaining it.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
No, I know what you're saying. It's sort of like,
you know, these commissions have already gained an extension which
has probably controversial and questionable in itself. You know, let's
call time on that. We don't now need a hybrid
model as well. And of course democracy did win. What
did Local Government Minister Simeon Brown have to say? How
(08:57):
did he respond to these ideas flowsh ay the commissioners?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Pretty simply, it's basically he was just he ruled it out.
He ruled out any notion of a hybrid council. It
was very quick to say that he wanted to see
Totong a return to full democracy and yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
That was it, full stop. Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So after all of that, now that it's been confirmed
that Totongo will indeed return to fully elected governance. How
do people in the community feel about that, Like, are
they looking forward to a return to democracy or is
there a little bit of maybe unsurreness about, you know,
(09:41):
a fully elected council after its most recent experience.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I think the big thing is a lot of people
don't want the same hygendts as what happened in twenty
nineteen and twenty and so, yes, most people that I've
come across certainly are quite keen the elections. They think
we're ready for it now, but there is some concern
(10:06):
that it could be I guess there's a threat of
history repeating itself.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, And this is so interesting because some members of
the council who were replaced with commissioners want their jobs back, right,
which I think is potentially maybe what you're alluding to
with history repeating itself. How are they making their case
for a second chance, Like I find that quite bizarre.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yes, yeah, it is an interesting one. I think the
common theme among each of the individual councilors who are
running again, from what they've told me, it's very much
that they've got that local government experience and that's something
that they feel tote on the needs they need. The
city needs people on council who have the experience of
(10:55):
local government and civic procedure and such. I think everyone
that I've spoken to that's running again is aware that
there's been a big push for fresh faces and new blood,
so to speak. And while some agree with it and
some don't, they are all pretty much of the same
(11:16):
opinion that regardless, experience is important.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Interesting, even if the experience is ending up being sacked.
Former Mayor Timbi Powell is among them, although he's only
running to be a counselor, Is that right, not the mayor?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, So what does he have to say, because obviously
his resignation was very high profile.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yes, it was, and he certainly took a lot of
consideration with whether or not to run again. But he's
ultimately wanting to see to move forward in a progressive,
positive way, and he feels that if he can run
in the council, and I guess offers some more choice
(12:03):
for voters, then that then that will help contribute to
that end result. He also she is concerns about some
of the other former counselors running again and potentially being successful.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So let's have a look at the mayor race because
there are some really high profile names that people will
be familiar with, including Mahi Drysdale, a two time gold
medalist and five time world rowing champion. Why is he
running this one surprised me.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, well, you know, he grew up here.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Mahei is a celebrated son of Tarranger, I guess you
could say, although he's very open with the fact that
he hasn't lived there for twenty two years.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Also, but he does have close ties here. A lot
of family of.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
His live here and as I'm sure you'll be aware,
his grandfather is the late served Bob Owens and he's
held in.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Quite high regard here on the local level.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
So he was the mayor of both Mount Monganoui and
Tarronga back in the day when they were separate entities.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And yeah, he's highly respected.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So local governance is not that much of a stranger
to Marhe because it is in his family. His uncle
is also running for the mayoral tea as well, which
makes things interesting. But yes, ultimately Marhey's really keen on
seeing Partonger grow and become basically a city that could
(13:43):
be the envy of others, So.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
What's the rivalry light between him and his uncle? That
is interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, I think we've both been quite diplomatic about
it when I've had a chat with them about the situation.
As marhe they both kind of want the best for
the city, but they do have different ideas on how
to potentially get there, So there's a healthy respect there,
of course, you know your family.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, but you know.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
They do have different ideas as to what it is
best for the city.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Is there any clear differentiation between their ideas that you
can think of off the top of your head.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I would imagine probably their biggest difference is money. I know,
Mahey's really big on growth whereas Doug's. You know, he's
big on growth and success too, but he's very mindful
about spending money, particularly ratepayers money.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
There's also award winning Maldie musician Ria Hall. She made
a splash when she announced her bit. Can you tell
me a bit more about her and why she's running?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yeah, So Rea effectively embodies change. I suppose it's for
note on her and she knows it too. A big
part of her campaign is, you know, she's standing for
change for the city and she's been quite open with saying,
you know, Totong a city chambers haven't said that, you know,
(15:11):
it's not seen a face like hers at the helm before.
And she's she's really aware that Titong has grown, and
as it's grown, so as it's different communities. So she's
all about inclusiveness and she really thinks that the time
is right for the council to be a bit more diverse,
(15:31):
a bit more inclusive and a bit more representative of
you know, Titong is population makeup as it is now
as opposed to what it was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And her else is running for the mayor. She you
know that might be considered to be a front runner.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well so those you know, obviously we've got Ria and
Mahe and you know their front runners just from name
recognition alone.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I mean in terms of branding.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, it's it's a good idea, but we shouldn't write
off that.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
You know, the former councilor is either.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
So we've got former de Kaddy mere Tenna Salisbury and
I think she was the first of all the candidates
to put her hand up and say yep, I'm running
for the mayoral Tea and she'll have a certain backing.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Behind her from people who felt that she was on
the right track. She didn't really get.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Too caught up in a lot of the politics, I suppose,
and and the dysfunction from the former council, even though
she was part of the former council. A lot of
the stuff is more reactive rather than proactive on her behalf.
But then we've also got you know, former Mere Greg
Browness in the running, and he's very much like a
(16:48):
bit of a I guess you could say, a community advocate,
and he likes to, you know, stand for the rights
of others and stand up and say, hey, this isn't right.
We need democracy back. So he he'll have certain backing
from certain pockets in society that you know, they didn't
really agree with the commissioners and the spending for big
projects and things like that. And of course we'll have
(17:10):
a former Counselor, John Robson, who's running for the mayoralty
as well as a counselor seat, and he's long been
vocal about the Commissioners and his concerns about their decisions
and their spending.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
So yeah, it's I.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Mean, there's fifteen candidates all in all, but I would
suggest those would be the ones to probably keep an
eye on.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
WOW fifteen. So what sort of campaign are you expecting
in the weeks ahead and or you know, what are
the issues that are going to crop up in the
campaign do you think?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Well, housing and infrastructure are probably the two big subjects
that any candidate with this soul will probably say is
a problem, because clearly that's what tod On is big
challenges are, but it's how they tackle them which will
be the real clinch. I think the campaign is going
(18:03):
to be interesting. I think it could get quite messy. Georgina.
I think that it's pretty quiet at the moment. For
you know, we've got eighty six candidates and right now
there's a lot of people who don't know anything about
them at this stage, and there's only very much a
handful of that that are really being quite proactive and
you know.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Holding.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Public meetings and getting out there and signage and things
like that. I think people will probably wait a little
while before really getting into it, and maybe that's a
reflection of experience or lack of but we do have
a lot of fresh faces now, so I think the
fresh faces are going to offer a lot of opportunity
(18:45):
for people for more familiar faces that could be where
things had to get a bit dirty.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Oh, I have to wait and see. Thank you so
much for joining us, Kenny, I really appreciate it my pleasure.
Thanks for listening to this episod of On the Tiles
Local Edition. For more local politics, news and opinion, head
toinzidherld dot co dot NZID. You can follow this podcast
on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to
(19:12):
my producer, Ethan Sills. This episode was edited by n
z mesound Engineers and you can catch us again next
Friday for more On the Tiles
KalDer and welcome to On the Tiles, the Herald's politics podcast.
I'm your host Georgina Campbell and this is a local
edition episode. On July twenty, Todong of voters will take
part in their first city council election since twenty nineteen.
The last council was sacked by the local government minister
(00:24):
and replaced with commissioners whose extended term is about to end.
The election is being held out of sync with national
local body elections, meaning the eight general ward councilors and
the mayor whom voters elect will be in power until
twenty twenty eight, four years instead of the standard three.
There are some high profile names in the mix, such
(00:47):
as Olympic rowing gold medalist Mahi Drysdale and some familiar faces,
including counselors who were booted out by commissioners last time.
Joining us today to discuss who's who is. Assistant news
director and senior journalist for The Bay of Plenty Times
and Rota Daily Post. Kittie galetspek Kyoto Kitty and thanks
(01:07):
for joining us a team.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Can we rewind a bit and start with why totong
It is in this situation. Why was the last democratically
elected council sacked?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I guess to sum it up in one word, and
that would be dysfunction.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So basically they were elected in twenty nineteen. In that
council that was elected then pretty much spent their first
year with a lot of bitter in fighting and one
upmanship and I think it's quoted in the report from the.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Observer team as poor behavior.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And it got to such a point of dysfunction that
the local government minister felt that she had to intervene,
and initially she did so by appointing an observer team
which basically sat in on council meetings and monitored their
interactions and functionality. And at the end of that term
(02:07):
they recommended a Crown Manager be appointed, and it was
that recommendation was met with some reluctance or resistance from
individual counselors for sure, and as a result.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Then mere tenB.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Powell resigned, calling for commissioners to be appointed.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And they were What was the main point of contention
amongst the elected members? Was there a specific thing that
they didn't disagree on or was it just a real
clash of personalities.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Certainly the latter.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
One particular counselor told me quite frankly that if ten B.
Powell was agreeing to anything, then he would vote the
opposite whatever it was. So again, the Observer team mentioned
in their findings that the race for the mayoralty never
really ended and this was quite evident with a lot
(03:11):
of the interactions between the councilors and the mayor, who
was obviously tender power at the time.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So the council was replaced by commissioners. What is the
role of a commissioner.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, in this instance, their role was basically to act
as elected members. They had all the powers available to them,
and their main priority was to get the long term
plan over the line, because there were concerns that that
wasn't going to happen with the former council because of
the dysfunction. So their first priority was really to get
(03:47):
that on the go, and the second priority that they
were tasked with was really to restore trust from the
Totonger community in its council.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Do you think they managed to do that?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I mean it's not been without contention and controversy, and
there's been some pretty high profile and expensive projects that
have kind of gone through under their counsemanship. But ultimately
the general consensus is, yeah, people have faith in the
city again, they like the direction in which it seems
(04:23):
to be going in saying that, of course, there are
pockets in the community that also feel very strongly that
the commissions should shouldn't have signed up for so many things,
and you know, can the city afford it.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So it's not without concern.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
But overall, most of the feedback I certainly come across
as in favor of the commissioners and what they've done.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And so basically they have decision making power right like
a counselor would, but they still have to consult with
the community in the usual way here oral submissions receive
submissions and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's an interesting one.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I mean, technically they don't really have to, but they
certainly put a lot of effort into doing that. There
was a lot of consultation, a lot of community to
get togethers. I went to a couple of you know,
after our meetings with communities where they were held in
like the you know, Mount Mong and Niui golf Club
or you know, the old Hawet Wall things like that
(05:23):
where people would gather, particularly if they were really concerned
about something such as Plan Changed thirty three, which is
all about intensified intensified housing at the mount. You know,
these are highly contentious subjects, but the commissioners were showing
up at these meetings to hear it all from the community,
(05:44):
to get that feedback. And whether or not they took
that feedback on board, you know, it's a story for
another day, but there are certainly consultation there and community
interaction for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
At the very least, they showed face, which is always
a good thing, I think for heated public meetings like those.
So one thing that interested me in reading up before
this episode is that commissioners called on the government to
change the law to allow for a hybrid. Government's arrangement
was four commissioners and five councilors instead of a fully
(06:18):
elected council after this year's election. Can you just explain
that proposal a little bit more and why commissioners thought
that would be a good idea.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, so it was of one of the options that
they were considering, but it was certainly a favored one,
and I recall and telling me a little while ago,
some of the theory behind that was ultimately to ensure
that there was continuity with projects.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So as I think.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Everyone's a weird, Toto is going through a bit of
a transformation right.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Where we're not the small little town it once was.
We were quite thrive and sitting.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
We've got a lot of population and that population set
to so the commissioners have done a lot of things
or put thing a lot of things in place to
really pay for that, and there was serious concerns that
their work would be reversed or undone if the council
(07:17):
was a fully democratically elected council in this year's election.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Okay, And that sort of idea was met with a
bit of pushback, wasn't it. Former Tato in Greek brownness
was pretty unimpressed. What did he say?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So well, Greg, he's an interesting one because he's been
quite open about the fact that he's not against the
appointment of the commissioners in the first place necessary necessarily
forgive me, but rather his concern was about their extension
or their reappointment, which took away the last elections for
(07:59):
Toto on the city, which is why we're having an
election this year, which is out of sink of everybody else.
But his big concern is democracy, So and that was
kind of overruling the threat of whoever may be re
elected or elected in this year's election, So long as
there was an election and everybody there was democratically elected,
(08:20):
that that was his big concern, and he felt that
the commissioners had already robbed the city of democracy by
their reappointment preventing that former election.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That's probably a convoluted way of explaining it.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
No, I know what you're saying. It's sort of like,
you know, these commissions have already gained an extension which
has probably controversial and questionable in itself. You know, let's
call time on that. We don't now need a hybrid
model as well. And of course democracy did win. What
did Local Government Minister Simeon Brown have to say? How
(08:57):
did he respond to these ideas flowsh ay the commissioners?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Pretty simply, it's basically he was just he ruled it out.
He ruled out any notion of a hybrid council. It
was very quick to say that he wanted to see
Totong a return to full democracy and yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
That was it, full stop. Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So after all of that, now that it's been confirmed
that Totongo will indeed return to fully elected governance. How
do people in the community feel about that, Like, are
they looking forward to a return to democracy or is
there a little bit of maybe unsurreness about, you know,
(09:41):
a fully elected council after its most recent experience.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I think the big thing is a lot of people
don't want the same hygendts as what happened in twenty
nineteen and twenty and so, yes, most people that I've
come across certainly are quite keen the elections. They think
we're ready for it now, but there is some concern
(10:06):
that it could be I guess there's a threat of
history repeating itself.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, And this is so interesting because some members of
the council who were replaced with commissioners want their jobs back, right,
which I think is potentially maybe what you're alluding to
with history repeating itself. How are they making their case
for a second chance, Like I find that quite bizarre.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yes, yeah, it is an interesting one. I think the
common theme among each of the individual councilors who are
running again, from what they've told me, it's very much
that they've got that local government experience and that's something
that they feel tote on the needs they need. The
city needs people on council who have the experience of
(10:55):
local government and civic procedure and such. I think everyone
that I've spoken to that's running again is aware that
there's been a big push for fresh faces and new blood,
so to speak. And while some agree with it and
some don't, they are all pretty much of the same
(11:16):
opinion that regardless, experience is important.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Interesting, even if the experience is ending up being sacked.
Former Mayor Timbi Powell is among them, although he's only
running to be a counselor, Is that right, not the mayor?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, So what does he have to say, because obviously
his resignation was very high profile.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yes, it was, and he certainly took a lot of
consideration with whether or not to run again. But he's
ultimately wanting to see to move forward in a progressive,
positive way, and he feels that if he can run
in the council, and I guess offers some more choice
(12:03):
for voters, then that then that will help contribute to
that end result. He also she is concerns about some
of the other former counselors running again and potentially being successful.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So let's have a look at the mayor race because
there are some really high profile names that people will
be familiar with, including Mahi Drysdale, a two time gold
medalist and five time world rowing champion. Why is he
running this one surprised me.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, well, you know, he grew up here.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Mahei is a celebrated son of Tarranger, I guess you
could say, although he's very open with the fact that
he hasn't lived there for twenty two years.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Also, but he does have close ties here. A lot
of family of.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
His live here and as I'm sure you'll be aware,
his grandfather is the late served Bob Owens and he's
held in.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Quite high regard here on the local level.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
So he was the mayor of both Mount Monganoui and
Tarronga back in the day when they were separate entities.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And yeah, he's highly respected.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So local governance is not that much of a stranger
to Marhe because it is in his family. His uncle
is also running for the mayoral tea as well, which
makes things interesting. But yes, ultimately Marhey's really keen on
seeing Partonger grow and become basically a city that could
(13:43):
be the envy of others, So.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
What's the rivalry light between him and his uncle? That
is interesting.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, I think we've both been quite diplomatic about
it when I've had a chat with them about the situation.
As marhe they both kind of want the best for
the city, but they do have different ideas on how
to potentially get there, So there's a healthy respect there,
of course, you know your family.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, but you know.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
They do have different ideas as to what it is
best for the city.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Is there any clear differentiation between their ideas that you
can think of off the top of your head.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I would imagine probably their biggest difference is money. I know,
Mahey's really big on growth whereas Doug's. You know, he's
big on growth and success too, but he's very mindful
about spending money, particularly ratepayers money.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
There's also award winning Maldie musician Ria Hall. She made
a splash when she announced her bit. Can you tell
me a bit more about her and why she's running?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yeah, So Rea effectively embodies change. I suppose it's for
note on her and she knows it too. A big
part of her campaign is, you know, she's standing for
change for the city and she's been quite open with saying,
you know, Totong a city chambers haven't said that, you know,
(15:11):
it's not seen a face like hers at the helm before.
And she's she's really aware that Titong has grown, and
as it's grown, so as it's different communities. So she's
all about inclusiveness and she really thinks that the time
is right for the council to be a bit more diverse,
(15:31):
a bit more inclusive and a bit more representative of
you know, Titong is population makeup as it is now
as opposed to what it was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And her else is running for the mayor. She you
know that might be considered to be a front runner.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Well so those you know, obviously we've got Ria and
Mahe and you know their front runners just from name
recognition alone.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I mean in terms of branding.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, it's it's a good idea, but we shouldn't write
off that.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
You know, the former councilor is either.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
So we've got former de Kaddy mere Tenna Salisbury and
I think she was the first of all the candidates
to put her hand up and say yep, I'm running
for the mayoral Tea and she'll have a certain backing.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Behind her from people who felt that she was on
the right track. She didn't really get.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Too caught up in a lot of the politics, I suppose,
and and the dysfunction from the former council, even though
she was part of the former council. A lot of
the stuff is more reactive rather than proactive on her behalf.
But then we've also got you know, former Mere Greg
Browness in the running, and he's very much like a
(16:48):
bit of a I guess you could say, a community advocate,
and he likes to, you know, stand for the rights
of others and stand up and say, hey, this isn't right.
We need democracy back. So he he'll have certain backing
from certain pockets in society that you know, they didn't
really agree with the commissioners and the spending for big
projects and things like that. And of course we'll have
(17:10):
a former Counselor, John Robson, who's running for the mayoralty
as well as a counselor seat, and he's long been
vocal about the Commissioners and his concerns about their decisions
and their spending.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
So yeah, it's I.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Mean, there's fifteen candidates all in all, but I would
suggest those would be the ones to probably keep an
eye on.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
WOW fifteen. So what sort of campaign are you expecting
in the weeks ahead and or you know, what are
the issues that are going to crop up in the
campaign do you think?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Well, housing and infrastructure are probably the two big subjects
that any candidate with this soul will probably say is
a problem, because clearly that's what tod On is big
challenges are, but it's how they tackle them which will
be the real clinch. I think the campaign is going
(18:03):
to be interesting. I think it could get quite messy. Georgina.
I think that it's pretty quiet at the moment. For
you know, we've got eighty six candidates and right now
there's a lot of people who don't know anything about
them at this stage, and there's only very much a
handful of that that are really being quite proactive and
you know.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Holding.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Public meetings and getting out there and signage and things
like that. I think people will probably wait a little
while before really getting into it, and maybe that's a
reflection of experience or lack of but we do have
a lot of fresh faces now, so I think the
fresh faces are going to offer a lot of opportunity
(18:45):
for people for more familiar faces that could be where
things had to get a bit dirty.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Oh, I have to wait and see. Thank you so
much for joining us, Kenny, I really appreciate it my pleasure.
Thanks for listening to this episod of On the Tiles
Local Edition. For more local politics, news and opinion, head
toinzidherld dot co dot NZID. You can follow this podcast
on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to
(19:12):
my producer, Ethan Sills. This episode was edited by n
z mesound Engineers and you can catch us again next
Friday for more On the Tiles
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