James Palmer resigns as Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive James Palmer has resigned after five years to take up a top role for the Ministry for the Environment. Photo / NZME

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive James Palmer has resigned after five years in the seat to take up the top role in the Ministry for the Environment.

Deputy Public Service Commissioner Helene Quilter confirmed on Wednesday that Palmer will be chief executive and Secretary for the Environment.

Regional Council Chair Hinewai Ormsby said Palmer’s last day will be Friday, February 10, and councillors will look for a replacement.

“We are sorry to lose James, who has been an exceptional leader for the council. He has significantly grown the capability and capacity of the organisation through challenging times to meet the biodiversity, freshwater, and climate change issues of the region,” Ormsby said.

She said Palmer was “destined for great things” at a national level with the Ministry for the Environment and his influence, particularly in the freshwater space, will be invaluable for the country.

Hinewai Ormsby embraces James Palmer as Hawke's Bay's first Māori regional council chair. Photo / Warren Buckland

“He has worked extremely hard with deep integrity and humility for our council, region and taiao during his time with us and we only impart with the best for him on an evolving journey.”

The Secretary for the Environment is responsible for providing strategic leadership of the Ministry for the Environment’s functions including policy advice and implementation, stewardship and monitoring.

Quilter said Palmer was an experienced, proven leader, with the right background for his new role.

He has been appointed for five years, from March 1 2023.

Palmer said it had been an enormous privilege to serve the Hawke’s Bay community and lead such a talented and committed regional council team.

“I am exceptionally proud of what we achieved together and satisfied that I am leaving a much stronger and more capable organisation for protecting and restoring our region’s environment,” he said.

“We have significantly grown the council’s investment assets, trebled our work on the ground planting trees and protecting native biodiversity, increased enforcement of regional environmental rules, and progressed huge amounts of new water policy.”

He said there was still much to do but the regional council team had made spectacular progress and he was grateful to everyone for their hard work and support.

Palmer joined the Regional Council in January 2016 as the group manager of strategic development and became chief executive in June 2017.

Previously he held several central government roles, including as acting chief executive at the Environmental Protection Agency, deputy secretary (sector strategy) at the Ministry for the Environment, director of strategy systems and science policy at the Ministry for Primary Industries and director of strategy (strategy development) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Another member of the senior management team at the Napier City Council (NCC), Debra Stewart, has also resigned this week.

The NCC had already seen its chief executive Steph Rotarangi and three other executives resign so far this year.

Those executives were director of community services Antoinette Campbell in April, director of programme delivery Jon Kingsford in May, and executive director of corporate services Adele Henderson in June.

The NCC declined to give the reasons for the resignations in an earlier statement.

“Reasons given for resignations are confidential and relate to employment law,” the statement said.

Stewart was appointed to the role in March after six years working for the NCC and in that time had been a team leader of parks, reserves and sports grounds, manager of asset strategy and acting chief executive for a month.

A Napier City Council spokeswoman said Stewart had left to spend some well-deserved time out with family and friends.