Kat Macmillan leads by 192 votes for the last Tauranga seat on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Photo / John Borren
Bay of Plenty regional councillor Kat Macmillan says she felt every emotion during the nail-biting, 48-hour wait for preliminary election results.
Long-serving councillor Andrew von Dadelszen had a five-vote lead over Macmillan for the last Tauranga constituency seat when the progress results were announced after the election on Saturday.
Preliminary results released on Monday give Macmillan a 192-vote lead over von Dadelszen.
Macmillan told Local Democracy Reporting the calls and texts of support kept her going over the weekend.
“It’s a horrible situation being in a waiting pattern.
“Every emotion, pretty much, has come over me over these last 48 hours or so.”
Not knowing whether she would be able to continue the “good work” she had done in her first term as a councillor made for a “very anxious couple of days”, she said.
She distracted herself with running and beach walks.
Macmillan was still waiting for the final result to be completely sure, but she had a “level of confidence” she would keep her position.
“I’m now thinking about getting on with the role as opposed to just hanging on a line and thinking about a plan B.”
Electoral officer Warwick Lampp estimated that, after validation checks, there would be about 300 special votes to be added, so the Tauranga constituency result could change.
Final results, including special votes, would be released later this week.
Von Dadelszen said he did not want to comment until the final result was announced.
There are nine new and five returning councillors at the regional council table.
Macmillan said it was up to the incumbents to get the new councillors up to speed as quickly as possible.
New Tauranga councillor Glenn Dougal ran a campaign under the slogan “Regional. Practical. Dougal.”.
Dougal, who owns marketing business Wave Agency, said he told a story people could relate to.
“Having a slogan is part of that so people can easily understand what you stand for and what you’re about.”
During the campaign, he heard from voters that the regional council needed to be “better at telling its own story”, so he said he wanted to ensure he told the best story possible.
Dougal has lived in Mount Maunganui for 23 years and said he started his career as a meteorologist for MetService before changing to business and marketing.
Kate Graeme, who would take another Tauranga seat, said she was “very excited” about the upcoming term.
She is the national president of Forest and Bird and on the board of Save the Kiwi.
Graeme said the natural environment was what everybody loved about the Bay of Plenty, so the council needed to make sure it was looked after.
“There’s a lot to learn, so I’m looking forward to finding out all the issues and information that I need to make good decisions for the community.”
There were challenges ahead with the Resource Management Act reforms and opportunity within that to do things better, said Graeme.
Fellow newcomer Tim Maltby gained the second-highest vote tally of the 18-candidate Tauranga constituency, with just over 8900 in the preliminary results.
The retired engineer ran on the platform of “Our Rates Are Too High”. He was approached for comment on Monday.
The top candidate was former Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, elected for his fourth term on the regional council with more than 10,000 votes.
Matemoana McDonald, who joined the council in 2014, has also been re-elected as the Mauao Māori ward representative.
This will be John Scrimgeour’s first term on the regional council in the Western Bay constituency, but he is familiar with local government.
He vacated the deputy mayor role at the Western Bay of Plenty District Council to run for the regional council.
Scrimgeour said he brought local government and land use knowledge and skills to the role.
People often “protested” about the cost of their rates, so the council needed to strive to get the best value out of what it did, he said.
Scrimgeour lives in Te Puke and was on the district council for 12 years.
He would share the constituency with councillor Ken Shirley, elected for his second term.
Preliminary votes show the other councillors will be Malcolm Campbell and Sarah van der Boom (Eastern Bay of Plenty); Mawera Karetai (Kōhi); Raj Kumar and Anna Grayling (Rotorua); and Allan Iwi Te Whau (Ōkurei).
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.