"People were working out that some of the councillors, if they're working full-time jobs, and then trying to put time in to the council - is everything going plain sailing?"
Mr McGrath said since losing his job he had spent time helping out at his children's school and his wife was working.
After running unsuccessfully for the council in last year's local-body elections he admitted to being a bit surprised at yesterday's win.
"With nine running it could have gone nine different ways so I certainly wasn't holding my breath." As well as promising to devote sufficient time to the role, Mr McGrath said he believed his clear anti-amalgamation stance and his promotion of the "fresh idea" for a lagoon beach on Marine Parade had appealed.
The road-to-election success had its challenges, with Mr McGrath's door-knocking hampered when he tore a calf muscle during the campaign.
Rather than giving up, he took up positions on main shopping streets in Napier's CBD and in Taradale to engage with voters.
Mr McGrath becomes one of six "at-large" (city-wide) councillors. Napier also has six councillors elected from four wards within the city.
According to preliminary results of the election, Mr McGrath got 3385 votes, beating Rob Duckworth by 858 votes. Just under 39 per cent of 42,049 eligible people voted.
The returning officer will confirm final results by the end of the week.
The byelection was triggered when Mr Lutter resigned in May to work in Auckland.
Preliminary results
Richard McGrath - 3385.
Rob Duckworth - 2527.
Larry Dallimore - 2431.
David George - 1948.
Kim Slater - 1924.
David Trim - 1590.
Emily Otto - 1539.
Andy Mason - 464.
Joan Kuzmich - 440.