Thames-Coromandel District mayor Len Salt has bedded into his new position and, in a release, outlined what areas of governance he has concentrated upon.
“I’ve been six weeks in the job now and I wanted to share with you where my time and focus has been spent,” said Salt. “One priority was bringing my councillors together. We have four new people elected and five returning, so developing a consensus on how we are all going to work together is crucial. Everyone is unique and has different life experiences, world views, and all have varying knowledge about how local government works, so my role as mayor is to harness all of that good energy, goodwill and [those] skill-sets and channel all that into how we govern well as a council.
“As a team, we’ve already had some challenging conversations about a few issues – but the discussion was mature, respectful and intelligent. And that is how we will continue to operate. We’ve got some major issues we’re dealing with as a country, as a region, and at a micro-level in the Coromandel. There’s the Three Waters Reform, the Resource Management Reform, the cost of living going up with inflation soaring, supply chain disruption and labour shortages - some of which is out of our control. But there are also ways we as a community, and as a council, can respond, influence and adapt so that we still see some positive outcomes for our people.
“So, in that respect, I’m putting together a framework of how our council will be able to partner, collaborate and work more effectively with our communities, our iwi, central government and other key partners to develop long-term aspirations and short to medium-term plans. This will involve bringing people and information together – making sure opportunities, issues and needs are well understood and well articulated.
“Having local information and data will help us in our local decision-making so we can improve social equity, workforce capability and better housing choices for all. My thinking has been shaped by the Future for Local Government Reform, which is giving us a chance to shape a more community-focused, citizen-led, local government system. And the beauty is that we can build this for ourselves. I encourage you to read the FFLG report that has just been released.