CHAIRMAN ALAN DICK’S OPENING ADDRESS TO COUNCIL
ON TUESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2009
(UPON APPOINTMENT AS CHAIR)
Thank you for your confidence and support.
I will commence from today as a full-time Chairman, to earn and justify your support through actions and results.
I would like to briefly tell you my thoughts at this stage:
- Firstly, I support this Council’s direction and pro-active strategic approach that we have evolved, but given particular impetus to in the past couple of years.
- I commend Rex McIntyre for his contribution to the new direction and his nearly 30 years commitment to Wairoa and the Region. It is unfortunate that some mistakes (and not all entirely of his own making) have for the moment taken the gloss of the public service career of a decent and principled man.
- I support our excellent Chief Executive and his fine committed staff, - from the Senior Management Team through to hard working people in the office and the field.
- I respect and admire and enjoy the debates with all of my elected colleagues and Maori Committee Chair, Mike Mohi. We are not cast from the same mould but our different backgrounds, life experiences and persuasions, together with a common passion for the betterment of this province, give us the potential to be a formidable team.
But nothing is ever perfect and we must aim for continuous improvement in the effectiveness and relevance of our decision making, advocacy for and service to the ratepayers and citizens of Hawke’s Bay.
More particularly so in an environment at least as challenging as the environment of the mid 1980s, with the works closures and the resultant recession, high unemployment and sometimes permanent disruption to peoples lives. Also a drought and the probability that the international crisis will bit us here pretty hard within the next few months. On top of that, our own dependence for income from interest on lazy bank deposits is finally confirmed as a folly as the Official Cash Rate fades away.
Not that I advocate retrenchment – a recipe for greater disaster if institutions and business collectively contribute to a 1930s like downhill spiral.
Rather prudence and top quality decision making should be our guide. It will not be an easy job.
What I want to do as my bit in the collective effort as Chair is to improve communication and understanding – receptiveness and responsiveness – firstly within the organisation in regard to relationships between elected members themselves, elected members and staff and vice versa.
Secondly to improve dialogue, responsiveness and relationships with our diverse external stakeholders and, of course, most importantly our ratepayers and citizens.
To do this I intend that the communication, accountability, consultation and advice channels between the Chair and Councillors are direct, frequent and friendly. I will pick up the phone and call you often and encourage you to do the same. I will also communicate by email but consider this to be the least effective means behind face to face and phone.
I will be getting the CE, Senior Management Team and Chairs and Deputies of Standing Committees together in the next few days to amicably sort out an agreement on protocols and understandings that ensure that staff and Councillors with Committee responsibilities are fully engaged with one another.
That does not mean blurring the lines of governance and management responsibility but intends to ensure appropriate team working and further ensuring that political and organisation risk is better managed.
Next it will be appropriate for the Council to review its internal responsibilities and appointments. One thing we need to recognise is that the Council has far wider scope and responsibilities than it did even twelve months ago.
I refer to the air quality responsibilities, the new focus on water strategy, the vastly increased scope and importance of the Regional Transport Committee, the new thrust on Public Transport plus RoadSafe and Hawke’s Bay Inc. now business units of the Council requiring appropriate Governance oversight.
Finally and most importantly I will work determinably to establish and re-establish effective and respectful working relationships with our external and constituency stakeholders starting today if there is time and no later than tomorrow.
I will take advice from Mike Mohi on appropriate approaches to Ngati Kahungunu and Hawke’s Bay Maori. In many cases I will be having the pleasure of renewing old acquaintances.
I will phone the Mayors starting with Les Probert in Wairoa requesting the opportunity to visit him and his Council urgently to confirm our commitment to their vital constituency. Lawrence, Barbara and the Mayor of Central Hawke’s Bay who I am looking forward to meeting will come next. Then the wider stakeholders group of MPs, sectorial representatives, interest groups and the like.
Good, mutually respectful and productive relationships involving senior staff and my Councillor colleagues will be the focus of my job immediately as high priority and ongoing with top importance.
As a footnote – let me tell you a little about myself and hopefully dispel a myth.
I have now had 23 years experience as a local government elected representative. In fact, this is actually my third term on the Regional Council, as I served at its inauguration in 1989 and then from 2004 until now.
In the meantime, I have had the privilege to serve as Napier Mayor for four terms, retiring in 2001. I have also served on the HB Harbour Board, and been a Port Company Director and Airport Authority member.
Some people (earlier at least) may have had the impression that my background would lead me to be “Napier Centric” or have a local parochial bias. I believe the support of my peers who have observed my work for the region over the last four and a half years should dispel that notion, but I would like to tell you why, in this job, my loyalties are absolutely to the Hawke’s Bay region.
Firstly, my family background and upbringing span across the Bay. I spent my early childhood in Hastings, went to Raureka Primary when my father was an accountant for the then Hastings Borough Council. Later the family moved to Wairoa with my father joining his brother in an accountancy practice while I and my sisters went to Wairoa District School and later Wairoa College. I rowed competitively on the Wairoa (and Clive) Rivers. Vocationally I originally trained as an accountant but later progressed to marketing and business management with a post-graduate business degree (MBA) earned in mid-career. I have worked in Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay (plus a couple of spells in Wellington and other locations). Most of my large direct and extended family live in the Hastings district.
I am privileged to call myself a Hawke’s Bay person. The Region’s advancement is my total passion and commitment.