‘The debate is the part I love the most’

AT HOME: Councillor Shannon Dowsing in front of his house at Wainui Beach with Ellie and Dexter. Pictures by Liam Clayton

SHANNON Dowsing is finding politics far harder than expected.

“That’s because I’m used to questioning and researching everything so the work is taking longer to get through than I anticipated,” says Shannon, who at 35 is the youngest member of the new Gisborne District Council elected in October 2016.

Shannon attributes this tendency to being part of a Gen Y cohort at Gisborne Boys’ High School which challenged the teachers on many fronts, especially if they perceived an injustice.

“My peer group was the beginning of Gen Y and we had a strong a sense of justice and right and wrong. Self-belief was strong in our year group, and I think that is what has made us successful,” he says.

“I’ve simmered down since then but I still go at things like a dog with a bone.”

Shannon’s decision to run for the Gisborne District Council came about while he was on a three-month overseas trip with his London-born partner Amelia. He met up with former colleagues from his decade working in London and was chatting about social enterprising.

“At the time, I was involved on a voluntary basis in youth mentoring, film production and fundraising for groups like my football club. I was talking about the idea of consolidating what I was doing and taking a more strategic approach to the development of the Gisborne region which in turn started me thinking about standing for council.”

Shannon subsequently ran a successful campaign, polling fifth highest in the city ward and the highest of the new candidates in last year’s elections.

He knew a bit about the task ahead of him through councillor Josh Wharehinga, who was in the same year as him at Gisborne Boys’ High School and from friends and family who had worked at the council. But the reality still came as a surprise.

“Local politics is far tougher than I expected. Everything is new and there are numerous rules and processes to get to grips with,” says Shannon.

“Not only is it a heavy time commitment in getting up to speed, but you can easily put an unintended strain on working relationships when you’re constantly questioning issues to get a better understanding of them.

“However I simply can’t, in good conscience, vote on an issue on behalf of the ratepayer if I feel like I need to know more.

“I think it’s my job to be well-informed and why I was voted in — not just to rubber stamp things,” says Shannon.

“I was expecting to spend about 20 hours a week on council business but so far it’s been more like a full-time job. Part of this can be attributed to my newness and the fact I want to make sure I am as well-informed as possible before making what are often critical decisions for the community.

“We are blessed in Gisborne having great staff to research issues, but I confess I often find myself looking into what’s being done at other local councils and overseas . . . I just can’t help it,” he says.

“It comes back to my natural tendency to question things.

“There’s no limit to the knowledge you can acquire or how much time you can spend on council work. There’s no defined way to do the job. You decide how far and to what depth to take it to.

“I feel like it is my role to examine an issue from a variety of angles before making a decision. But it has certainly cut into my surfing time,” he says with a broad grin.

There’s plenty of scope for Shannon’s questioning mind with the Wastewater Options Review Group (WORG) of which he is a member. Made up equally of iwi and council representatives, members of WORG have fortnightly meetings to decide on what to do with Gisborne’s waste water.

“When the first documents arrived on my desk, they looked like two copies of the phone book stacked one on top of each other. They contained a comprehensive review of the entire research done on the wetlands project, the condition of the water in the bay and the options for different treatment processes, varying in cost from $17 million to $70 million.”

“You can look at the issues from an environmental, social, financial and cultural perspective and come up with four entirely different answers. As a group we need to strike a balance and decide on our preferred outcome.

“We have an ambitious target of six months to do the research, take all the expert advice and communicate this to staff. Only with a definite outcome can they compile a report that will achieve what we want,” he says.

“Working on a complex project like this is like a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. You have to weigh up each piece and decide whether to keep it or discard it. I love the mental challenge of it.”

Councillors get a stack of paper on every issue, says Shannon.

“There’s so much information coming in all the time, you have to be continually focused. “I’m not good at memorising things but I like to think I have always been good at facts and figures, logical thinking and understanding how things work, be it home renovations, car maintenance or waste water infrastructure. If I can work out the logic, I’m OK. I can understand and remember it.”

Where possible, Shannon likes to see simple solutions.

An example of this is the ladder at the rail bridge which was installed pre-Christmas in an effort to reduce the number of kids jumping from the higher road bridges and in the inner harbour.

“It was dangerous for all concerned and distressing for harbour users who were terrified they would run someone over,” he says.

“There was a lot of debate, four suggestions were proposed but none were going to proceed. We all knew there was a problem and it demanded attention. We needed to take it back to basics,” he says.

“I knew we couldn’t stop the bridge jumping culture — nor do we want to — so I proposed the ladder idea.

“This small but meaningful achievement has given me more than just satisfaction. It’s given me a taste for being able to bring about change and make things happen. It makes me hungry for more,” he says.

Another of Shannon’s priorities is to help maximise the parking potential in the inner harbour.

“It’s a debate that’s gone on far too long. We have discussed it at length and need to make a decision. It’s a business area but it’s also used by boaties. There were 65 boats parked here during a recent fishing competition and only eight allocated parks. People park where they can around the streets but there’s no logical place for overflow.

“It’s going to be as much about capacity as event management to make the area function at its best, but it’s something we can achieve.”

The next Long Term Plan for the district is coming up for consultation soon and Shannon wants to see “thorough consultation to guide a very good strategic statement driven by the community”.

“We need a plan that can summarise our intentions for the next 10 years and beyond — a community plan that will aid councillors’ decisions and streamline the transition between incoming and outgoing councillors with a statement of intent that we all believe in,” he says.

Shannon relishes the debating aspect of the role.

“When you step into a meeting, you never know what issues will be contentious. The debate is the part I love the most — informed people debating the reasons for and against, in order to reach a decision.

“That’s democracy in action. I absolutely love the conversation from all sides. I can’t wait until the community is able to stream our meetings online but until then they will just have to follow Mayor Meng on Facebook.”

As part of Gen Y growing up and then working in a digital space, Shannon has to deliberately restrain himself from leaping onto social media as he would have in the past.

“As a councillor, I don’t want to taint the conversation with my opinions. It’s about the public’s voice not mine. But I also feel protective of the council and staff and don’t want to read unfair or uneducated comments.

“It is hard to differentiate between my personal comments and those of Councillor Dowsing in the social media world, so on occasions I have added comment. I have purposely taken a lot of care and made sure I am not adding fuel to the fire but I’ve tried to provide valuable commentary.

“It’s a far cry from my pre-council days where I would comment on everything from cat videos to online debates.”

Looking ahead, Shannon says he will need to find some work-life balance so that he can continue with his passions outside council work.

“I’ve had to make sacrifices in my personal life from the time of the election campaign — which took every waking hour — to the realities of holding office. My house renovations are on hold and my businesses Ginger Lodgings (a bed and breakfast at Wainui) and Out East Ideas, gets whatever is left of my time after I’ve done my council work.

“Out East Ideas is also the heart of my social enterprise work, and I would like to take on more projects with community benefits.

“One such project I loved working on was upgrading the cinema server at the Dome Theatre. Studios these days demand certain level of security before they distribute up-to-date films which meant a forced upgrade if the Dome Cinema was to continue.

“Dome owner Sally Shanks got huge quotes for the job but drawing on my technology background, I was able to implement a software solution for a fraction of the price and help, in some way, to keeping this fantastic venue going.”

Shannon is also itching to use the new film equipment he purchased before Christmas which is still sitting in boxes under his desk.

“The idea behind that was to volunteer my time to create promotional films for crowd funding campaigns or local projects needing exposure like the kiwi enclosure at Motu’s Whinray Scenic Reserve and the Tokomaru Bay restoration project.

“The kiwi enclosure is an amazing place. I got to pat a kiwi there for the first time. I’d love to work with Steve Sawyer and others at Whinray to find out what they want to achieve and provide marketing assistance for them.

“I’ve also been meeting with developers around study and memory apps, both for business and personal reasons. I want to learn te reo properly and I’m starting my course this month. I hope to use the app as a learning aide but I have to make a te reo version first.”

In his “spare time”, Shannon is the funding manager for Thistle A.F.C.

“I raised $30,000 for them last season through grants and sponsorship and we are really excited about getting our fundraising plans organised for this season. Our aspirations are very high so the demands on funding are also high.

“I always like to set myself aspirational targets and redefine what success is to me.

“I’m still new to the role but personal success for me as a councillor would be to see less negative backlash from the public about what the council is doing.

“I’d like to see more of a ‘we-are-all-in-this-together’ attitude . . . because we are. The job isn’t about the money — all the councillors are community-minded. We all have best interests of community at heart,” he says.

“Fortunately, Amelia is incredibly supportive of what I do. She understands about working long hours from her own career and she’s really good at making me keep everything in perspective and stopping me from taking things to heart.”

• Born, raised and educated in Gisborne, Shannon trained as a telecommunications apprentice in Gisborne before embarking on a technology career in London. He worked as producer and business development manager for Inition, described by BBC as “London’s most cutting-edge company”.

Shannon created holograms for Shell, virtual and augmented reality experiences for BP and Vodafone, 3D films with Manchester United and consulted with the UK Ministry of Defence on human machine interfaces. He developed stereoscopic (3D) systems for deep sea underwater maintenance of oil platforms and for the Robotic Surgery Centre in Qatar, providing live streaming facilities for 3D laparoscopic surgery.

Shannon returned to Gisborne with his partner Amelia in 2014 after 10 years abroad. He arrived home just in time for the Gigatown competition. He scripted and starred in a video about the opportunities in the region called Shed Talk, that won first place in the video competition, securing the points required to go to the final.

In 2015, he established a digital business called Out East Ideas Ltd and set up a bed and breakfast at Wainui called Ginger Lodgings.

In October 2016, Shannon was elected as a councillor on the Gisborne District Council. His council responsibilities include: Future Tairawhiti Community Development, Waste Water, Finance and Audit, WORG, Art in Public Places, Barrington Miller Trust, and several project governance groups including the library upgrade, council administration building and inner harbour development.