With the election of Sophie Siers as Chair of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council by her colleagues, the region’s political ‘A Team’ has been settled.
Chair Siers joins mayors Will Foley, Wendy Schollum, Richard McGrath and veteran Craig Little as the region’s local government leadership unit.
In her acceptance remarks, which included a strong expression of support for Māori co-governance – “the most effective way to successful outcomes” – she identified these priorities …
- Accelerated development of HBRC’s land management support in upper river catchments – not terribly sexy sounding, but intended to achieve more stable soils, less sediment run-off, cleaner water and increased carbon sequestration.
- Smart and comprehensive water and biodiversity conservation – she would like “to see our water so respected and water use so efficient that allocation isn’t an issue”.
- And greater resilience for our landscapes and river systems to severe weather.
She commented that such resilience might cost in the half-billion range, which would require critical attention to managing ratepayer money, but noted our region now “knows directly the cost of not being prepared”.
Siers also praised the dedication of former Chair Hinewai Ormsby, particularly during the cyclone recovery effort, saying Ormsby’s “work ethic would be difficult for anyone to emulate.”
Siers seems mindful that HBRC requires some reputational repair and aims to “elevate the standing of the council in the community”. And with Government challenging the very existence of regional councils, she indicated the need to “demonstrate the value of the work HBRC does”.
Councillor Jerf van Beek was elected as Deputy Chair, also stressing flood protection as his top priority for the council.
Having been rivals for the top job (but of course both were elected unanimously on the day, with one abstention), both leaders commented that they did not share the same views on all issues, but they considered that useful, one referring to “healthy disagreement” and the other to the value of “constant tension”.
Stay tuned for how the differences play out!
There’s a lot of work ahead of the Council/Councillors and some of it relates to their own reputation recovery after Gabrielle. The build up of gravel on riverbeds should be a priority I would think as that has had the effect of lowering the effectiveness of stopbanks and perhaps was a cause of some of the flooding. If the words spoken mean anything they’re heading in the right direction so good luck and hope they achieve all their aims.
I couldn’t agree more Grant, we went through Fernhill recently and I was staggered to see the gravel build up from the bridge view, if something is not done about this Flaxmere will be wiped out.
Very many congratulations to Sophie. A wonderful achievement.
I am very much in tune with your objectives and your philosophy.
well done Sophie. hoping for a bit more steel in the job of environmental protection. (he said, with farmers and foresters and councils building on floodplain in mind….) ;)
Why does the new Chairperson for the Regional Council state strong expression of support for Maori CoGovernance? Surely everybody is equal in the law, and should be equal in Council matters. We all need flood protection, waste disposal, electricity, roading etc, so why is one race pushed ahead of all others? Its just getting most peoples backs up and inviting retaliation which is wasting Council funds and putting our rates up.
Start by making Council secular