Our elected Councillors and Community Board members are supported by a team of people – the person who works to keep you informed about what’s happening is Maria De Cort.

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On any given day, Maria might have written a post for the Council’s Facebook page, be the one reading your comments or responding to your direct messages. She might be pulling together your feedback on a document sent out for consultation, or attempting to turn technical and legal jargon into everyday English that we can all understand.

Or, she might be the person being chased by media for official comment on Council news.

Maria and her family are also members of our community.

“I wasn’t born here, although my great grandparents are buried in the Millers Flat cemetery. 

“But this is the place that I choose to call home. 

“One of the key reasons this district has my heart is the strong feeling of community that I found here for the first time in my life.

“I’m in my 10th year working at Council, and the same things that attracted me to make the move south from Christchurch in 2011 for this role keep me here.” 

Maria chose to live and bring up her family here in Central.

Maria’s role is communications coordinator for the Central Otago District Council; she is part of the Community and Engagement team.

“Councils deliver such a wide range of services and make so many decisions that impact our day-to-day lives. 

“I help promote our activities and services, communicate key decisions, and encourage everyone to get involved.” 

Maria says it is a real challenge for a small rural council like ours to deliver everything they have to. 

“Most of the things we have to do are no different than what a bigger city council has to do. “We just have less people and less money to do it all with, and often the catch is that expectations from our communities are pretty similar.”

“Compared to some of our big-city counterparts, our communications are done on a shoestring budget, but we’d like to think that doesn’t mean they can’t have just as much impact. 

“We just have to get creative in our thinking, and the key is to partner with the people in our community.”

Maria talks about a seemingly simple example, but something very important here in Central.

Think back to the middle of last year when we came out of lockdown, and back down alert levels. It had been only red bin rubbish collection for a long time, now recycling was set to start again. Maria needed to get the word out far and wide. 

“We did all the usual things, putting out notices on our website, Facebook page, in local media. 

“But we also tried to cut through the noise with bright visuals of our blue and yellow ‘bin guy’ to attract attention. 

“We had blue and yellow themed songs on the radio linked to our adverts – think Yellow by Coldplay, Blue Lady by Hello Sailor; and we worked with the good sorts at the Alexandra Lions Club to change the colour of the clock as a visual reminder.” 

And through all those messages, Maria encouraged people to be ‘street champions‘, be part of the campaign and help spread the word. 

“This is key through all our messaging – sharing is caring!  

“That’s what living in this community is all about. 

“If you see or hear something related to your Council through an official, reliable source, then share it with family, friends, neighbours and workmates.”

“We don’t have a big enough team or budget to knock on every door and tell you everything you need to know about everything we are doing. 

“And frankly, would you want that? 

“For every person who didn’t know something was happening, there’s someone who feels we’re overloading them with information.” 

Maria says her next big project will be to get people’s attention and feedback on the Long Term Plan.

“It’s all about OUR future: everyone in our community, everyone in our district.”

Images supplied