Waipa District Council HQ
Correction
James Graham, currently acting chief financial officer at Waipa District Council, has been appointed Waikato Waters chief financial officer, not chief executive.
5am 7 May
Waipā District Council has launched a significant restructure as the organisation and councillors grapple with the district’s ongoing growth pressures.
Steph O’Sullivan
Council chief executive Steph O’Sullivan told The News two staff would leave their council jobs, effective from July 1, 2026, following a restructure that was on-going and part of a four-phase transformation.
One of the council’s longest serving staff members, Wayne Allan, confirmed his departure from council, with a message on LinkedIn.
“While this marks a change I hadn’t anticipated, I remain grateful for the time I’ve had at council and for the opportunity to work alongside so many dedicated colleagues,” he wrote. “While this chapter is coming to a close, I leave with enormous respect for the people I’ve worked alongside and confidence in the ongoing work of the organisation.
Te Awamutu News 7 May 2026
O’Sullivan said that in total, six council jobs had been disestablished so far, while three new roles had been established under the restructure, which was part of a transformation called Future Us.
“While you’re going through a change process, it adds additional pressure. Two people are leaving the organisation so it’s a significant change,” she said.
The council will also be hiring a new chief financial officer. Acting chief financial officer James Graham, had been appointed Waikato Waters chief executive.
Future Us will also include a review of Waipā Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) capacity and capability.
Wayne Allan
The restructuring of council roles is expected to finish between August and October this year, depending on how long it takes to fill new positions. The remaining phases of Future Us are building leadership and capability, which could take up to 18 months.
Waipā Mayor Mike Pettit told The News that while more council jobs could be affected by the restructure, it was about making the council organisation fit-for-purpose.
“Restructures are hard on everyone. Unfortunately, there are often difficult conversations to have. And at the end of the day, we must have a Waipā District Council that’s fit for purpose to achieve good outcomes for the community,” Pettit said.
Mike Pettit
“If you take a continuous improvement approach you should always strive to improve and this is part of that – this is the start of a new structure that’s fit for purpose,” he told The News.
O’Sullivan said the new council executive leadership structure had been reduced from a seven-group framework down to five: growth, strategy and planning, community delivery, strategic Māori partnerships, customer and business services, and finance and commercial. Each group would be led by a director.
Waipā had changed significantly in the past 15 years, along with the environment it operated in, she said.
Roger Gordon
“We’re seeing sustained growth, increasing expectations from our communities, and tighter financial constraints.”
The Future Us transformation was designed to make the council fit for the future, to deliver community outcomes, while operating in a volatile and challenging environment locally, nationally and internationally, which many sectors were also facing, O’Sullivan said.
Ahead of the start of the restructure, there had been more than 55 meetings with external stakeholders and more than 50 interviews with staff and elected members, O’Sullivan said.
Challenges around increasing workloads and tight deadlines for Waipā councillors and district council staff also came up at this week’s Strategic Planning and Policy Committee meeting.
Mike Montgomerie
Strategic Planning and Policy Committee chair Mike Montgomerie acknowledged the workload and tight deadlines of both councillors and staff, in response to a concern that councillors only had a few days to read and consider council work on Cambridge Connections – a council project investigating solutions to the district’s traffic woes.
Councillor Roger Gordon said councillors did not have enough time to read and consider council staff’s work on traffic challenges and possible solutions, ahead of a public-excluded workshop to whittle down a list of ideas, assessed against multiple criteria.
Montgomerie acknowledged councillors’ workload and tight deadlines but said it couldn’t be helped. The workshop was designed to be interactive, and a staff report on the matter could not be made available any earlier.
“There are a limited number of staff all working on the same issues councillors are trying to deal with,” Montgomerie said.
“This year we have three massive pieces of work all at the same time – the annual plan, long-term plan and Cambridge Connections – and it’s a lot of the same staff working on these things,” he told The News.
The district council was a relatively small organisation, with the same group of people handling work on many challenging issues facing the district, he said.
“There is tension between some governance expectations and around the timing of material delivered,” Montgomerie told The News.
However, that was the side effect of running a lean, efficient organisation that dealt with multiple big issues, he said.
Waipa District Council
