Hawke's Bay council meetings: Councillors prepare to roll up the sleeves

The lineup last night as Central Hawke's Bay kept its council intact for the next three years. Also pictured is kaumātua JB Heperi-Smith. Photo / Supplied

It's time to roll up the sleeves and get to work for Hawke's Bay's councils starting to stage their inaugural meetings following the final declaration of local elections results a week ago.

First out of the blocks was the Central Hawke's Bay District Council, which had the easier of the jobs with Mayor Alex Walker and all eight councillors re-elected - the mayor and the four in one ward unopposed and four in the second ward successful at the vote.

The triennial swearing-in took place in the Municipal Theatre in front of family and friends in the Waipawa Municipal Theatre on Wednesday night.

The longest-serving now is Kelly Annand, who was first elected in 2010 and will now begin a fifth term, also continuing in the role of deputy mayor.

Of the other authorities, the Tararua District Council, with new Māori ward member Naioma Chase getting in on just a three-vote majority, stages its inauguration on October 25, and the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, with five new members, does its business the next day, in Napier's War Memorial Centre, enabling more people to be present than it could in it chambers.

The Wairoa District Council was still to confirm its date, possibly also October 26.

The Napier City Council, with two new members at a table of 13, will be sworn-in on November 1, and the Hastings District Council, with six new members at a table of 16, will have its inaugural meeting on November 3.

Unlike Wairoa, Napier, Hastings, Central Hawke's Bay and Tararua, where the mayoral incumbents were all re-elected as part of the local elections, the regional council members decide their own leader, with a new chairperson to be decided at its inaugural meeting and replacing Rick Barker, who did not seek re-election to the council.