Paul Hawkes to stand for Council

July 11th, 2016
[by David Armstrong]

Community Board chairman Paul Hawkes (pictured) will stand for Motueka Ward Councillor at the local body elections in October.

He has handed in his resignation to his current full-time employer and will take up another job in Nelson which will allow him to have two to three days per week free to do Council work if he is elected.

Paul has been very active and vocal as the local community board chairman for the past three years, and has advocated strongly on several issues including the library, Motueka policing and stormwater problems.

"When arguing these issues with Council, I've come to realise that with them it's a numbers game and in order to be more effective I want to add to the numbers advocating for Motueka," he told Motueka Online.

He said he has been mulling over standing for Council for many months, but realised that with his very busy full-time job at NMIT he would not be able to provide a good service as an elected Councillor.

"When the possibility arose for me getting another part-time job that could fit in with Council work, I was able to make my decision."

Paul will also stand for the Community Board. "In case I'm not elected to Council, I still want to carry on the work on the community board that I have been involved in."

If Paul is elected to both Council and Community Board, his position on the latter will be allocated to the next highest voted candidate.

He is the first Motueka local body politician to announce his candidacy. Motueka Online understands that incumbent Councillors Barry Dowler and Peter Canton will also stand again.

Councillor Jack Inglis, at present on holiday overseas, has told many of his colleagues that he will not be standing this year.

It is our understanding that no-one else has yet announced their decision to stand for the Community Board, though we have heard of several prominent people who are close to a decision. Nominations close at noon on Friday 12th August.

Comment by Jim Butler:
[Posted 17 July 2016]

I am surprised that Paul Hawkes intends standing both for Council and the Community Board. Also if elected to both, he will choose to become a TDC Councillor, rather than remain a Board Member. My observations, over 20 years, is that TDC Councillors are largely emasculated by the way TDC operates.

For a start, on being elected, TDC Councillors have to make a commitment to represent the interests of the District as a whole, not just the ward that elects them. The effect of this is for councillors to largely rubber stamp approval of many of the proposals staff put in front of them.

This is reinforced by the standing orders on the operation of council meetings, which limits input from councillors. With many of its operations covered by long term contracts, councillors have little control over TDC expenditure. The end result is that TDC is one of the most heavily indebted Councils per ratepayer in the country, and its ratepayers, the most heavily rated.

On the other hand, with the limited amount of money the Motueka Community Board is allowed to spend, a lot of minor improvements have been made in this Ward, with little if any, waste of money. Also the Board has proved, in my opinion, that when backed by suitable publicity, they are better able to make changes to TDC policy, than our Ward Councillors. The only advantage Councillors have over Board members is that they are better paid.

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