An expression that I love is "I am not here for me, I am here for WE, and we are here for THEM."
Being Mayor is not about me and what I want. To me being Mayor is about effectively representing the people of Southland and providing the right level of leadership to create a sound platform for the 69 elected members to achieve the best for Southland.
At the start of my term in 2022, it was vital to set up our team for success. I took the Councillors and our CEO out to Jericho Lodge for an overnighter to create the right platform for the term.
This was not a fancy retreat, we cooked our own meals and slept in sleeping bags. It was the perfect setting with views of the Takitimu Mountains out the window and best of all, no cellphone reception.
By the end of the two days, we all had a good idea of what we wanted to achieve as a collective. We had a solid foundation for working together in the best interests of Southland for the next 3 years, with a number of important decisions ahead of us.
The metrics here also set the scene for how Council needed to run, focused on outcomes and done on a tight budget without all the frills.
We are unique and very lucky here in Southland with our Community Boards, where we have 69 Elected Members in total. These people are all community leaders in their own right, and it is my job to provide the platform and the support for them to carry out their roles effectively, whilst at the same time being focused on the collective interest of all of us.
This is easy when we are all there to make Southland better!
One thing that frustrated me as a Community Board Chair, and also as a Councillor was that Council had not been operating as efficiently as it could have been. The importance of being able to make fast decisions in a Community Board was often held up by the cycle of Council meetings, where in the worst case scenario, a decision could be delayed by up to 3 months.
As a Councillor in the previous term, I also found the committee structure cumbersome. It meant that not all of the team were across all the parts of governing SDC in one instance, and then in other cases there was duplication of work in reaching a decision. The worst example of this was in one day, the same report was debated 3 times. This was not good use of anybody's time.
Having Council meetings spread across different days of the week made it difficult for those Councillors in employment to manage their time, which also made it hard to attract people to the role.
I flattened out the structure so that everything runs through the full Council, changed the frequency of the meetings to fortnightly (from 6 weekly) and ensured that all meetings and workshops occurred only on Wednesdays.
Recognising the importance of the independent chair for our Finance and Assurance Committee, I did keep this in place, but ensured that all Councillors were on it rather than the previous four.
There had been a lot of criticism around the "tail wagging the dog" at Council and we needed a bit of a reset. I arranged a facilitated strategic priority setting session over a couple of days and included the Community Board Chairs and the Executive Leadership Team. Based on the foundations gained at Jericho, this set the building blocks for our decision making as a collective, and ensured that those who were elected by the people were driving the direction of SDC.
Another important change that I insisted on was taking our Council meetings out into the community. Geographically our area is huge, one of the biggest in the country. You cannot make accurate decisions around the table in Invercargill based solely on reports, we need to have an understanding from the coal face.
There were parts of our district that some Councillors had never been to, and taking our meetings out into the community was a real win.
This also provided an opportunity for our ratepayers in these communities to come and engage with Council in their area. I know that this has resulted in better decisions being made.
Our Community Boards are the glue that holds our Council together and ensuring that they have the appropriate respect and autonomy is vital to a successful Southland. I have setup regular invites for Board Chairs to present in Council meetings, and these have been a real highlight.
The CEO and I ensured that we attended each of the inaugural Community Board meetings, and I was surprised at the positive feedback around us staying for the entire meeting. What came naturally to us had clearly not occurred in the past.
From day one in my new role the complaints were rolling in. I reflected on a conversation with someone during the campaign who said "when you get in, you are going to spend the first half of your term apologising on behalf of Council, whilst you are steadying the ship."
Having served as a firefighter, I drew an analogy to a number of fires that needed to be put out. There were a few big fires burning, and every time the wind blew, spot fires would develop. Only focusing on the spot fires meant that the big fires continued, and there was always going to be further spot fires.
Choosing to instead focus on the main fires, meant that although they took more effort than putting out the spot fires, once they were out, they were out.
As an officer on the fire ground, you learn to stand in the position where a photographer would stand. This enables you to get a good view of the entire situation and allows you to make the most strategic and effective decisions.
Another observation that I had on day one as Mayor is that we had awesome staff. These weren't career bureaucrats who were there to collect a paycheck, these were people who genuinely cared about making Southland better.
I was confused, as this did not align with the number of complaints that I was getting, but I was comforted by the fact that on the whole we had the right people, we were simply missing the right processes.
I worked hard to put out the main fires, and can happily report that the complaints that I was receiving daily have now changed to compliments. There has been a huge turnaround in key parts of the organisation, and with less spot fires to keep putting out, there is more time to focus on other key areas.
I have independence from any political party and this neutrality is important when it comes to advocating for Southland in Wellington, irrespective of who is currently governing the country.
During the last term I have been able to successfully work across two very different governments, and have had my strong advocacy work recognised on the national stage.
When the new waters reform commenced in 2023, I traveled up to Wellington with the CEO and Infrastructure GM and met with the key staff in the DIA and Taumata Arowai to ensure that Southland's voice was loud and clear at the start of the legislative reform process.
This established enduring relationships that have allowed us to stay one step ahead of the reform. Rather than fighting legislation at the end, we were able to help develop the legislation to fit our needs in Southland.
Knowing what you are talking about is crucial to effective advocacy, also knowing who to talk to and being able to tune your messaging to respective audiences is beneficial. Knowledge is power.
Our roads are crucial here in Southland. They are one of the most talked about assets amongst ratepayers and they consume about a third of our rates. I have become a respectful pain in the backside for the government with my roading advocacy.
Because I have a solid understanding of the problem in Southland, including in depth knowledge of all the facts and figures, I have been able to provide a very strong case for improved funding of our roads.
Not giving up is something that I am quite well known for, and I am determined to land on a fair result for Southland's roads and bridges.
Being acutely aware of what is happening, both locally and centrally allows me to be on the front foot. Again this comes down to knowledge, but it also ties into connections and relationships.
It allows me to identify opportunities and then be on the front foot as much as possible. This involves maintaining a strong network, plenty of time on the phone and lots of research.
The strength of good relationships and networks cannot be underestimated. I already have strong relationships with a number of key stakeholders and I have the ability and drive to build on these and create new relationships to ensure that Council is in the best possible position.
There are so many important relationships required for this role, including but not limited to iwi, neighbouring Councils, Central Government, partner agencies and importantly those on the coal face in the communities that we represent and serve.
The old adage of it's not what you know, it's who you know is very true!
Everything that I do is always focused on the outcome. Far too often, particularily in Councils we find ourselves doing something well-intentioned, but missing the key driver or goal for where the work needs to finally land.
This is an issue that has been talked about for nearly an entire generation (no pun intended). Recognising this as a key priority to sort ASAP, I carried out some research into what had happened in the past.
I found multiple newspaper articles all referencing solving the problem, with the end result being a report. There is a pile of well intentioned reports, all pointing to potential solutions, however nothing seems to have gone beyond that stage.
I established a steering group to focus on this issue, and after a year of having regular meetings, I found that we were heading down a similar pathway to what had gone before us.
I stopped the process in it's tracks and pushed the reset button. I revised the structure of the group, re-looked at it's purpose, banned the use of the word report and started again.
Fast forward another 9 months and we have a commitment from the Government to fund our solution to the tune of $15.3 million and we have done enough groundwork to get started on delivering the project in a few months.
Something else that has been talked about around Southland for a generation has finally reached a point where it can actually deliver some real change.
The success of getting this across the line didn't come by chance, it came from doing it well and doing it for the right reasons.
Working with people who understand local government in Southland and also doing a lot of work on it in house has meant that the work is relevant. It has been driven from both my experiences as a business and ratepayer outside of council, and then also my 15 years of working inside of council and identifying all of the frustrations and importantly looking at solutions.
The foundations of this work are based on better outcomes for our communities
I am stoked that the Local Government Commission has formally accepted our Proposal and are taking it to the next stage for investigation. This means that the people of Southland will now get the final say in the end result.
Having seen the success of this programme with some of my colleagues up the country, I knew just the team to help me get this off the ground in Southland.
This has been a huge success, and after just a year of running the programme we were top of the South Island for outcomes.
This programme doesn't cost the ratepayer a cent, is funded by MSD and provides support for both employers and our young people in our rural areas to reduce the barriers to employment.
There are such cool stories here of young people not slipping through the cracks. With tailored support from Liz, Sara and Renata and also utilising my network and relationships we have been able to join the dots and create many win/win results.
This is something that I recognised a few years ago was missing in Southland. We have all of these expensive plans that exist in silos and nothing really ties them all together.
There is nothing worse for an area than reactive growth, and because Southland has so many unique communities, it is important that our towns are able to have their own autonomy. We have towns in Southland that are growing like Te Anau and Riverton, and we also have some areas that are full of potential. Letting our communities decide what is best for them is the key, and then we can make sure that we front foot how each of our towns grow into the future.
As we invest in our infrastructure and unlock potential in our area, we need to make sure we get this right. We had some Better Off Funding available from the last 3 Water's Reform, and I was able to utilise this to kick this project off.
Fast forward, and the Government are now requiring regions to do Spatial Planning. This means that we are one step ahead and importantly also have the funding secured so that there will be no impact on your rates.