By ELEANOR BLACK
Gisborne District Council's estimated $38 million debt is the defining issue of the region's mayoralty race.
All candidates are promising to reduce it, and all ratepayers are demanding that their share in paying it off shrink substantially.
Outgoing Mayor John Clarke, who held the position for 12 years and
was in local government for eight years before that, has left a void which has attracted four men with vastly different backgrounds and interests.
Former Labour MP Allan Wallbank, in Parliament from 1984 to 1990 and who guided the region through the aftermath of Cyclone Bola, has the most political experience, although his campaign has been hampered by a dispute over ownership of a Wairoa property he bought five years ago.
Local Maori believe the land is theirs and Mr Wallbank says they are responsible for a series of animal killings on the horse stud over the past four years, including the gruesome shooting and scalping of a three-year-old filly this month.
Mr Wallbank said the land was subject to a Government caveat and was part of an unofficial "land bank" for use in settling Treaty of Waitangi claims.
Mr Wallbank ran against Mr Clarke in 1992 and unsuccessfully contested the Wairoa mayoralty in 1998.
As well as the top job, he hopes to win a council seat and place on the Tairawhiti District Health Board.
Councillor Meng Foon, a businessman who launched his first enterprise at the age of eight when he sold puha to a local produce supplier, is making his second bid for the mayoralty.
After six years on the council, he is promising to bring commonsense, energy and innovation to the top job.
Tourism entrepreneur Frank Murphy and businessmen Geoff Swainson are political newcomers who view their "outsider" status as an advantage.
Mr Murphy runs a luxury fishing lodge at Motu and Mr Swainson is a consulting engineer and business planner who worked for the council as a senior manager for 20 years.
Sitting councillors Atareta Poananga, Bill Burdett, Craig Bauld, Alan Davidson, Chester Haar, Hemi Hikawai and Margaret Thorpe are among the 40 people seeking council seats.
Ron Atkinson, who was elected to council in 1998 and resigned this year on a point of principle, is standing again.
Feature: Local body elections 2001
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