Regional council’s CEO bringing new approach
Five months into a new role Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) chief executive Steve Ruru is preparing for the challenges ahead.
A banged up ankle, twisted while tramping around Lake Waikaremoana with his wife, Alison, has limited him exploring much of Taranaki’s wilderness areas so far.
And he has not yet quite embraced the Taranaki Bulls rugby team over his own Waikato Mooloos.
Prior to taken over the reins of the TRC, Ruru led the Southland District Council and has previously been chief executive at ThamesCoromandel and Kaipara district councils.
He said there were few obstacles moving up from the deep south and into a house in the current overheated property market.
The couple managed to quickly sell their house in Invercargill and were then lucky to be in the right place at the right time to buy near New Plymouth, he said.
Ruru brings to the new role plenty of expertise to fall back on with more than 20 years working in local government.
He has previously been chief executive at Thames-Coromandel, Kaipara and Southland district councils before moving to Taranaki in late 2020.
Added to local government experience have been roles in the health, and tertiary education sectors.
Ruru, of Nga¯ti Raukawa and Nga¯ti Ranginui descent, said it was good to be back nearer wha¯nau living in the Waikato.
The Waikato University management studies graduate replaced previous TRC chief executive Basil Chamberlain, who was one of the country’s longest serving local government CEOs with 40 years service.
‘‘Basil had his own style and approach, and he made a huge contribution to the region, there’s not doubt about that,’’ Ruru said.
‘‘I’ll bring my own approach and my own style to different issues.
‘‘To me, it is about building on the strong base we have got here and continuing to ensure we serve the community well in a time when the local government is going to go through some pretty fundamental changes.’’
The TRC would not divulge what Ruru is being paid, citing privacy between employer and employee.
The 2019-20 annual report recorded the previous chief executive received total remuneration of $382, 575.
The new role will not give him a lot of time to put his feet under the table with the regional council ready to sign off a raft of regional, and long term plans before mid-year.
‘‘I’m enjoying Taranaki and a change to a regional council after a number of years with territorial local authorities (TLA).’’
Taranaki is smaller in size than Southland, which has 11 per cent of the country’s land area, and that creates a different set of challenges, although the two communities are similar and serving similar functions, he said.
He was fortunate to be able to bring the understanding of TLAs to the new position, he said.
Regional councils have a stronger environmental regulatory role in the regions, which is the big difference he had noticed, and also enjoyed, and provided different issues to deal with, he said.
‘‘You have different functions in regional councils but you need to still have strong relationships with your district councils because we all service the community, it makes sense to work together.’’
One of his previous roles was finance manager at the Waikato Regional Council for three years from 1989, dealing with particular issues around infrastructure and redevelopment.
The experience will come in handy with the Three Waters (stormwater/freshwater/wastewater) review, and reform of the Resource Management Act.
Each will have a big influence on the future shape of local government and its functions, he said.
The TRC, one of 67 regional and district councils which own and operate drinking water, stormwater and wastewater across the country, faces faced challenges to fund infrastructure, comply with safety standards and environmental expectations, he said.
There is also the challenge for councils of building resilience to natural hazards and climate change, and supporting growth.
Ruru believes the reforms will be a step up and lift environmental performance expectations, which he said were ‘‘certainly needed’’.
It will create more monitoring of standards across the country and introduce more transparency in regional performance to deliver the standards set, he said.
‘‘The government’s proposal is to create multi-regional service delivery entities which will pull wastewater, and potentially stormwater, out of the territorial local authority responsibilities, and put it with regulatory companies,’’ he said.
‘‘On the regulatory side, regional councils will still have environmental regulations to follow.
Taranaki is fortunate it has a strong riparian planting programme already in place, he said.
‘‘We are ahead on the game, we have done all the good work, and we have a good relationship with our rural communities we need to build on.’’
There was a very clear public mandate for councils to set higher environmental standards and outcomes, and a clear cross-party agreement the RMA needed to change and move on and meet the needs of the community, he said.
The RMA has been amended so many times it has become a ‘‘tarnished brand’’, he said.
‘‘Let’s modernise it and pick up the good things out of it and the new things which can be applied to meet the expectations of the community today, which have changed in the last 30 years.’’
Climate change and the transition away from oil and gas will be challenging issues for the region, he said.
The region has new standards to meet and will need more resources to meet national expectations, he said.
‘‘The speed of the transition will have a big impact on the local community and economy.’’
Working together and combining skills across different agencies is more efficient way to achieve results using the same funding pool, he said.
The other big issue is the increasing role of Ma¯ori and tangata whenua in decision-making frameworks in a fast changing environment, he said.
‘‘You talk to my father who was smacked on the hand for using Ma¯ori in class.
‘‘Now New Zealand is at the other end of indigenous rights and involving the voice of Ma¯ori in decision-making.’’
Ma¯ori are in a much stronger position to be able to contribute, and now have a resource base from Treaty of Waitangi settlements to support it, he said.
‘‘That changes the way in which we need to work, which is significant.’’
He said a Ma¯ori constituency was another way of providing recognition for Ma¯ori around the decisionmaking table.
‘‘It is only one of the ways we need to engage as we will always have representation at committee level and we will continue to engage with individual iwi and hapu¯ on issues that affect them.’’
Working in a regional council was about being close to communities, he said. ‘‘It is important for me to be able to make a real practical difference which is something I always enjoyed.’’