Frana Cardno ‘A truly outstanding mayor’
Frana Cardno entered a testosterone-drenched environment as a councillor on the newly established Southland District Council in 1989. It turns out she was ready to contribute far more than an oestrogen top-up.
Such a manly business was local government in rural Southland that not one woman had served on the three counties that had amalgamated to form the new district — Southland, Wallace or Stewart Island. (The other council, Winton borough, urban liberals that they were, had notched up no fewer than three by then).
Her political starting point had been a fight to have equal access to libraries for everyone in Southland but for those who had not been paying close attention to her work at community board level up Te Anau way, there was still a not-infrequent assumption that her Christian name was a misprint of ‘‘Frank’’.
But by the time she retired from the council she was not only the longest consecutively serving mayor in New Zealand (1992-2013), but also one whose leadership had never been truly assailed by any other candidate.
On her retirement, The Southland Times said she would be the last to pretend she had any sort of monopoly on heart-onsleeve provincial passion – ‘‘but she has plenty of it, and the sort of smarts to make it consequential’’.
Her achievements tended to have more to do with the basics of council service rather than monumental projects but among the defining characteristics of her mayoralty was steely behind-the-scenes resolve expressed, time and again, by a capacity for smart, incisive lobbying.
Cardno was ardent that democracy needed to come from the bottom up.
When Local Government New Zealand in July awarded her the Skills Organisation Outstanding Contribution to Local Government Award, president Lawrence Yule called her ‘‘a truly outstanding mayor . . . always the champion for community boards and social issues’’ and ‘‘an excellent lobbyist who seemed to have open access to all ministerial officers’’.
Quite so. Such ability was enhanced, but by no means fully explained, by a close working relationship with Prime Minister Helen Clark.
When she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013, she said it was the district’s hard-working, passionate communities that had kept her committed.
In 2008 she was among six ‘‘trailblazing’’ women honoured at the New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation.
She also received the Jean Harris Award for the development and progress of women in society, the United Nations Certificate as an outstanding woman in local government and in 2001 was named a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for public services.
Few issues brought out her considerable protective instincts more than roading.
Cardno kicked especially hard against the ‘‘monstrously unfair’’ government decision to give highest priority for roading funds to resolving urban congestion.
People, she said, were not dying on Auckland roads as a result of congestion. They were dying on rural roads because the councils could not afford to make the safety improvements that would save lives.
She was tigerishly protective of the national parks in her district and to the fore in successful opposition to Fiordland monorail and Milford Dart tunnel proposals.
She was more cautious than gung-ho about the idea of a Haast-Hollyford road, out of concern for the potential cost to ratepayers.
However, she was ‘‘fiercely proud’’ of other developments, such as the Hump Ridge Track in Tuatapere, which brought communities together as many volunteers pitched in.
She supported a more collaborative approach among Southland’s local bodies and was proud of the development of their shared services forum.
The death of her husband Murray in 2011 was not only a profound personal loss but also took from her a source of unflagging practical and organisational support.
Murray had been a significant sounding board for ideas because, she acknowledged, they were ‘‘possibly at the opposite ends of the spectrum’’.