A new council - with a majority of councillors seen as anti-dam - was elected in the 2016 local body elections.
Since, it has taken a different direction to the previous council on a range of matters. This included undertaking a review on the council's most ambitious project - the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme - which Mr Palmer oversaw.
"I feel enormously privileged to be coming in at a time when the organisation is at a point of change, and I feel privileged because that represents a significant opportunity."
Mr Palmer said the organisation had been through a range of difficult issues recently.
"So there is considerable important work to do to ... address some of the issues that that have thrown up over the last few years and to set the organisation on a strong and definite course from here," he said.
"So the timing's good in many respects. There've been a lot of lessons learned I think within the organisation and in the region about the regional council's role. Now's the opportunity to step into the next phase where things will be different."
While some change could be on the cards, Mr Palmer's goals as chief executive for the next year also include continuing work on council policies such as Plan Change 6, the TANK plan change, on the coastal marine environment, and with the council's Capital Structure Review.
One priority was working through the implications of the Havelock North inquiry findings, and ensuring the management of the region's drinking water was "well in hand".
The August outbreak had also shown a need to review the council's compliance and enforcement functions, and look at whether enough focus was being put on areas with significant risk to the community, he said.
And there was "determining the future of the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme".
The council is awaiting a Supreme Court judgment on a land swap needed for the dam to go ahead.
Although this judgment could deliver "essentially a fatal blow to the scheme's chances of proceeding", there was also a large amount of work to be done to resolve issues raised through the review.
When asked, Mr Palmer said it was too early to tell whether the scheme should proceed.
"I think the scheme needs further consideration and I think it warrants the additional bit of work we are doing with council now on the resource consents for the scheme and how the scheme can be compliant," he said.
"I think it's just too hard to speculate. My focus is on ensuring that we do the work as quickly as we can, and to the satisfaction of our councillors so we can get a decision.
"I do think the community has been travelling with this issue for a long time and it has been a source of frustration for many in the community across a broad range of perspectives. The sooner we can bring some certainty to the situation, the better."
He said he hoped council would have some clarity on the scheme's future before the end of the year.
A "top priority" for the new chief executive was ensuring the council was engaging with the community.
If the community better understood the council's work, and the vulnerability of the region's "precious" resources it would mean a "bigger team effort" in contributing to their protection.
"I think the Havelock North water incident was a good example of how councils can provide their core functions day in and day out, and nobody pays much attention until something goes wrong," he said.
"I want to make sure that we have the conversation with the community about those important functions ... and hopefully by paying attention to those areas we can reduce those numbers of incidents where things do go wrong."
Before joining the council, Mr Palmer was deputy secretary sector strategy at the Ministry for the Environment for three years, responsible for the strategic direction of New Zealand's environmental management system.
Before this he held various positions at the Ministry for Primary Industries, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and between 2005 and 2008 he served as chief of staff to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity.
In the early 2000s he was an adviser and senior private secretary to the deputy prime minister.