Waipā has sent four of its staff to help out weather stricken areas in Hawke’s Bay, Thames-Coromandel and Waikato.
They have held positions of response manager, welfare, intelligence and planning support for a combined 232 hours.
Tony Quickfall
But one of the staff, planning manager Tony Quickfall, used the opportunity to announce his secondment to Hawke’s Bay last week to complain on LinkedIn about being on the receiving end of a few keyboard and media warriors who are “experts in everything”.
He said their credentials for criticising were that they could drive or live in a certain place.
Quickfall said working in local government was sometimes “really hard work being in the glass bubble.”
“But each day those of us in local government quietly know we have in a small way, made the world a little better. And we come back the next day to do it all again,” he said.
It was not clear whether Quickfall’s comments were directed at The News which in recent times has reported several controversial planning decisions including kiwifruit shade cloths and illegal quarries or the public who criticise the council on social media.
Meanwhile Waipā District Council has adopted its Far North equivalent as part of Local Government New Zealand’s Adopt-a-Community campaign.
The aim of the campaign is to raise as much money as possible for the adopted communities’ mayoral relief funds.
Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan said she would be providing moral support to her counterpart Moko Tepania, a first-term mayor like her.
She met Tepania at mayors’ school and persuaded him to take a photo of Waikato’s female local body leaders which The News ran last year.
She and deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk have also bonded with the 32-year-old at rural and provincial sector meetings.
Susan O’Regan
“The plans are still in development,” O’Regan said but she is encouraging residents to support the Far North council in whatever way they could. She and fellow Waipā councillors were to discuss ideas this week.
Central Otago mayor Tim Cadogan, a member of the Local Government New Zealand council, came up with the idea.
“Local government leaders such as mayors and chairs have an incredible ability to bring communities together and rally behind a strong cause,” he said.
“What we know from experience is that when it comes to communities getting back on their feet, it’s a marathon not a sprint. That’s especially true with a disaster at this scale.
Clutha and Waitaki councils have joined Waipā in supporting the Far North.
