Former mayor eyes top job

Former Timaru mayor Janie Annear will stand for the top job again at this year’s elections, citing last year’s Alpine Energy share selldown proposal as one of the drivers for her decision to restand.

Annear, who was the district’s mayor from 2004 to 2013, said she would bring new skills this time around and thought she could offer ‘‘more than I did as mayor six years ago’’.

Yesterday’s announcement means the mayoralty racewill be a genuine contest in October’s local government elections, with incumbent Damon Odey already signalling his intention to stand for a third term.

Annear said she would be the open mayor the town had the first time she was in power.

‘‘I’m going to bring people along with me, and I’m going to have really clear strategic plans.’’

She said the way the Timaru District Council had gone about the proposed sale of its holdings company’s shares in Alpine Energy had been one of the drivers for her decision to stand again.

‘‘There were things that happened which made me think ‘that’s not how I would have handled it’. Certainly, the community were really upset about the proposal, as I was.’’

Annear has served as a local government commissioner since 2014.

‘‘I’m one of the most experienced people in New Zealand in regards to local government. I’ve been involved with a huge number of issues.’’

‘‘I now feel my experience at a national level has increased my skills, widened my experience and relationships. I think I can offer more now than I did as mayor six years ago,’’ Annear said.

‘‘I’ve been thinking about running for a little while but it’s been the last couple of weeks that I really firmed up my position.’’

She promised to bring ‘‘upfront inclusive leadership with no hidden agendas’’.

‘‘I don’t want to talk about what the council has done right or wrong. I want to bring people together from the ground up rather than from the top down.’’

Water is going to be a big issue for council, Annear said.

‘‘I’m not a supporter of water meters. We need to do a lot more to conserve what we’ve got, and we have to look for new sources but there are some huges issues coming up.’’ Annear said the council also needed to work harder on re-energising the district’s CBD areas.

‘‘It’s really important. We’ve got to be on our game, it can’t be piecemeal.

‘‘It’s got to be well set out, because one thing people like to get involved in is their sense of place,’’ she said.

She also felt that central government delegating more roles to councils had placed increasing pressure on rates and promised to use her contacts within local government to address that issue. ‘‘All the councils need to keep the pressure on government. We need to share some of the revenue that they take out of the community. We can’t keep expecting our residents to pay more and more rates,’’ Annear said.

‘‘The government is looking to review how the supply is managed for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater. That’s going to cost billions of dollars. There’s no way councils can afford that on themselves. Councils will need to fight this.’’

Annear, who has also served as deputy chair of Ara Institute of Canterbury, expressed concern about the Government’s proposal to centralise polytechnic and training institutes.

‘‘It’s really important that we don’t lose the local decision making.

‘‘I don’t believe a big, cumbersome government organisation would be able to be as innovative and progressive as the institute needs to be."

She was also looking forward to build on some of her achievements in her previous stint as mayor, which included the Cbay Aquatic Centre, nationally regarded recycling and waste management, and ‘‘prudent investment in infrastructure’’.

‘I don’t want to talk about what the council has done right or wrong. I want to bring people together from the ground up rather than from the top down.’

Janie Annear