While rates rises have been blamed for at least 31 regions ditching their mayors, Whakatāne has opted for a mayor more welcoming of nice-to-have projects.
“The nice-to-haves probably add a few dollars to the rates bill at the end of the year,” said mayor-elect Nandor Tanczos.
“They’re not the things that are driving rates increases. I don’t believe in sucking all the money out of everything that make our place worth living in.”
Despite two mayoral candidates advocating to rein-in council spending, the previous mayor Victor Luca and newcomer to council Philip Jacobs, Tanczos is looking safe as mayor-elect.
With only special votes still to be counted, Tanczos was sitting 96 votes ahead of Luca for the mayoralty.
Luca has conceded that he was not expecting any reversal to Tanczos’ lead when final results came out later this week.
He said he felt most of those making special votes were more likely to vote for Tanczos.
“My supporters have been fairly stalwart,” Luca told Local Democracy Reporting.
“I would have expected the special votes to break for [Tanczos]. So I’m not expecting any miracles.”
Luca has spent his two terms on council trying to exert downward pressure on rates.
“I did my best to keep rates increases to moderate levels. That’s one of the things I stood on and died in a ditch over,” Luca said.
Luca went as far as voting against two long-term plans as he considered they contained projects that would be too costly for ratepayers.
"You’ve just elected a mayor that was pro-the boat harbour, the council refurbishment and the Rex Morpeth Recreation Hub development,” he said.
Philip Jacobs stood against Luca for the mayoralty on a similar agenda.
He advocated for staff cuts and scrapping of projects, including the Rex Morpeth Recreation Hub and the Matatā Wastewater Project.
“He was a bit more draconian than I am,” Luca said.
Between them, Jacobs and Luca have 4804 votes so far, more than enough to win against Tanczos’ 3607.
Mayor elect Tanczos was humble in victory.
“It’s not 100% in the bag yet, but I feel really humbled that the community has put their faith in me to be mayor of Whakatāne district.
He felt people made a clear choice on the issue of council spending on “nice-to-haves".
“Philip gave them a really clear choice, saying we need to suck all the money out of all the so-called nice-to-haves, and people have indicated really strongly that’s not what they want.
"They don’t want a community with no life – that has no facilities. People voted for something different.”
He said items such as the proposed Rex Morpeth Recreation Hub were not what was driving rates rises.
“I do believe that social infrastructure is just as important as principle hard infrastructure but I also believe that we have to give value for money. People need to see that we’re not spending their money unwisely.”
Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
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