After 15 years in the job, Hastings mayor Jeremy Dwyer shocked supporters yesterday by announcing he will quit local politics.
Mr Dwyer said he was not standing for a sixth term in October's local body elections because he felt it was time the district had new leadership.
"I have lived and breathed this job, and it's been nights and weeks and months for years. But, for different reasons, I don't feel I can keep up the intensity of my boots-and-all attitude."
Mr Dwyer, one of the five longest-serving mayors in the country, is undecided about his future but has ruled out a return to national politics.
A former deputy leader of the New Zealand Social Credit League, he stood as the Hastings parliamentary candidate in the 1978 general election.
The 53-year-old was first elected to the Hastings City Council in 1977. He served two terms.
Mr Dwyer regards his biggest achievement as development of the Landmarks programme. The first of its kind in the country, it is a community-council partnership aimed at creating civic pride based on landscape, architecture, art in public places and history.
Hastings had bounced back from freezing works closures, drought, hail and an economic downturn during the 1980s and 1990s to a city and district with a launching pad to achieve a sound future, Mr Dwyer said.
He believed a council and community partnership was needed to address local government, economic, environmental, cultural and social issues.
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
Hastings mayor calls it a day
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