Central Hawke’s Bay’s new mayor says he’s starting to get his head around the fact he won the local elections. Although, he said, he had been feeling really positive about his prospects in the last week of the campaign.
“It’s really rewarding for the campaign that we did, in terms of the margin. We were really happy and obviously enjoyed Saturday and a few celebrations afterwards,” Will Foley said.
No time for a hangover, however, as he had committed to presenting prizes at the Waipukurau race course on the Sunday.
“I was pretty exhausted and tired by Monday. The whole thing was a bit of blur and now it has started to sink in.”
Foley beat incumbent Alex Walker with 3,854 votes to her 2,209.
The most important thing for the moment, he said, was pulling the team together and understanding everyone’s priorities.
Foley will be leading a council made up of Todd Chote, Kirsty Lawrence and Pip Burne in the Ruataniwha ward; Jerry Greer, Kate Taylor and Brent Muggeridge in the Aramoana-Ruahine ward; Amiria Nepe Apatu in the Rautahi Māori Ward; and two at large councillors, Gerard Minehan and Kelly Annand.
Foley said it was a good mix of incumbents and newbies and the first order of business would be coming up with an updated strategy.
“Because we did have such a good campaign, I think everyone learned a lot about where the community is at and where they see issues and what needs to be addressed. In that sense we can come together and strategise and work out what our priorities are,” he said.
“I’m confident we’re going to start off pretty strong and excited about the next three years. We don’t have budgets to play with, and so it’s just trying to do those basics well and efficiently.”
Any strategy was likely to be simple, because with such a small community, it wasn’t possible to be all things to all people. A greater diversity of views around the Council table would make for better debate and decision-making, he said.
Apart from that, Foley was off to Mayor School in Wellington for a couple of days, run by Local Government New Zealand.
“It’s going to be exciting to meet all the other mayors, and catch up with the new Hastings (Wendy Schollum) and Napier (Richard McGrath) mayors.”
Early in the new year Council will be working on the annual plan and first budget.
So Will’s training is being run by the same LGNZ that he questioned being part of during the campaign. Maybe not a waste of money after all.
Congratulations Will, life will step up a few gears now. Surely, the people of CHB will be looking forward to the moment that you and your councillors will put their money where there mouth is – presently we are on a road to bankruptcy (of ratepayers), so a new, focussed and especially affordable fresh approach is vital. Good luck.