It felt a bit like a “cattle sale”, according to one candidate, as 20 hopefuls for local government seats lined up to sell themselves to Cromwell voters. 

But with close to 200 people filling the seats of the Cromwell Presbyterian Church on Tuesday night (September 16) for the meet-the-candidates evening organised jointly by the town’s Lions and Rotary clubs, organisers said they were “rapt” with the turnout. 

The meeting was a slick operation, with candidates for Central Otago district mayor, council, Cromwell Community Board, and Otago Regional Council (ORC) each given a tightly timed slot to introduce themselves.  

Mayoral hopefuls spoke longest, with speaking time tapering down through councillor candidates to those standing for the community board. 

After a short break, pre-submitted questions were put to the stage - keeping the focus firmly on candidates rather than on audience interjections. 

MC Greg Delaney told the audience the night was “about listening to and getting to know the people who have put themselves forward to serve our community”. 

Mayoral race 

Trust, rates and council culture were the flashpoints in the mayoral section. 

Charlie Sanders, who is also running for a district council seat, told the audience “above all trust between council and community must be repaired”, saying that trust was “broken”.  

He warned “rates just keep rising”, leaving senior citizens who had “paid rates and taxes for decades” at risk of freezing in their homes balancing bill payments, while younger people were being priced out of Cromwell. 

Incumbent mayor Tamah Alley, who has served six years on council, with the past 12 months as mayor, said she understood the frustration with rates.  

“For the last couple of years, opening your rates bill has become a horrific experience,” she said.  

Tamah argued her governance experience mattered and said she would prioritise funding streams outside of rates.  

“One of the big things that I will be looking for in the next term is ways to pay for things that don’t come out of your pocket,” she said, pointing to opportunities in regional partnerships with neighbouring councils and central government. 

Mark Quinn took aim at rising council debt and staffing levels.  

“I’m here to sort it out,” he said, claiming the council employed too many staff compared to similar-sized authorities and some of them weren’t working hard enough. 

He also promised to end the council’s relationship with Local Government New Zealand, with its focus on “feel good things”. 

Big picture issues 

Beyond the mayoralty, common themes ran through the evening: steep rates rises and how to balance them with investment in infrastructure; how to manage Cromwell’s rapid growth; and how to make sure the town’s voice is heard at district, regional and national levels. 

Anna Harrison, current chair of the Cromwell Community Board, told the audience: “We’re a rapidly growing and changing community. We have needs that are different to some of the other parts of our district, and those needs need to be clearly communicated and listened to at the council table.”  

Candidates had an allocated time to pitch their worth to voters at a meeting organised by the Lions and Rotary clubs of Cromwell.

Bob Scott, a current board member now vying for a district council seat, pointed to figures showing the scale of what’s ahead.  

He said a report received by the board earlier in the day projected 6,600 new homes across Central Otago in the next decade - more than 4,000 of them in Cromwell alone. 

Alongside growth and rates, candidates were asked for their views on a grab-bag of local flashpoints: the rebuild of the Cromwell Memorial Hall (and what it should be called), the state of tracks around the lakeside, the future of the town’s central mall, affordable housing, and the proposed Santana mine. 

The issues often revealed the difference between sitting members defending their track record and newcomers promising fresh approaches. 

Community board member Wally Sanford, seeking a second term in office, said his point of difference was "knowing his lane”.  

“I’ve been around the table, I know what I can change and what I can’t, I know what wheels are in motion,” he said.  

On the Cromwell mall, for example, he cautioned against unrealistic expectations: “There’s going to be no bulldozers going through that anytime soon”, noting much of the property is privately owned. 

Council hopeful Stephen Carruth resolved to do everything in his power to “undo” the creation of a joint council-controlled organisation charged with water services delivery, calling the council’s recent moves on the issue a “very bad decision” that had been “rushed through before the election”.  

Sitting councillor Cheryl Laws argued “experienced, strong, level heads” were what was needed over the next three years to monitor the new and separate water entity.

Another council hopeful, former police officer Andrew Burns, slammed what he claimed was a growing reliance on contractors for services the council should keep in-house, as well as a lack of governance experience around the council table. 

Newcomer Haemia Melling, who has lived in Cromwell for three years with her young family and is standing for election to the community board, said she represented “people who want to uplift the diversity of thought and experience” of elected officials. 

Other would-be elected members stressed their deep-seated community roots, among them Rebecca Anderson, standing for the community board, who when the question of naming rights for the new Cromwell Hall was put to her said, as a long-term local, “it’s always going to be the ‘Memorial Hall’”. 

Regional council race 

The ORC Dunstan constituency, which spans Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes, has four seats up for grabs this year, and a change in voting system to decide who will fill them. 

There were murmurs of support for sitting councillor Michael Laws, who held up his freshly arrived ORC rates bill still in its envelope.  

He told the audience rates had jumped “on average 20 percent every year for six years”, firmly blaming rising staff numbers.  

“I haven’t got a clue what they do because it sure as hell isn’t killing rabbits,” he said. 

Michael also railed against the council’s new multimillion-dollar Dunedin headquarters, accusing ORC of being too city-centric.  

“We’ve got an effective strategy to take back control of our environment from a group of people who live 220km away and believe that the prime priority for them is the $65M headquarters building,” he said. 

Fellow candidates Gary Kelliher and Nicky Rhodes, who alongside Michael are campaigning under the Vision Otago ticket, also took aim at spending priorities and governance. 

“It is the councillors that you elect who should be making decisions about the direction of our region, not the staff,” Nicky said, while Gary claimed local government was “totally broken”, telling voters it was “all about ideology at your cost”. 

Neil Gillespie, standing for ORC after decades working for Contact Energy and sitting on the district council – most recently as deputy mayor - committed to a pragmatic, “commonsense” approach. 

“I’m experienced, considered and capable, with no agendas and no vested interests,” he said. 

He reminded voters even the most determined elected member is still just one vote around the table, and “one vote does not equal a majority”. 

Others emphasised their backgrounds: Ben Farrell of Queenstown highlighted his expertise in resource management, while Maniototo’s Amie Pont leaned on her long involvement in rural communities. 

Apologies were received from candidates unable to attend the meeting: Sarah Browne (who also earlier contacted The Central App to explain she would miss the event as she would be out of town helping with a school sporting trip), Mike Casey, Gerald Duncan, David George, Jane Smith, and Matt Hollyer. 

The Central App will continue its Q&A series with candidates from Thursday, offering readers a chance to delve beyond the soundbites. 

This week’s question: Name three top skills or experiences you’ll bring to the decision-making table.

Read last week’s responses to: ‘What’s your track record?’

• District mayor and council candidates 
• Community board candidates
• Regional council candidates

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