Unflappable, calm and professional
Electoral officer
FOR decades, Dunedin City Council staff member Pam Jordan was at the heart of the local body election cycle.
When mayors and councillors were elected, Ms Jordan was the voice on the end of the phone, delivering the good news.
And when elected representatives were discarded, or their rivals failed to unseat them, she was the one to convey the bad news.
Always, she worked with the same unflappable style — a calm, professional manner, and only the occasional glimpse of her wry sense of humour.
It explains why so many past and present mayors and councillors of all political stripes attended the funeral of Ms Jordan (59), who died of cancer, on October 22.
It was, former mayor Peter Chin said, a sign of the regard in which she was held after more than 30 years’ service to the city.
‘‘It was very comforting to know you had someone of her calibre in those positions of responsibility to make sure everything ticks.
‘‘She was that person for Dunedin City Council for years and years and years.’’
Ms Jordan was born in
Dunedin on October 29, 1958, and grew up in Green Island with parents Betty and Dick Jordan and younger brother Barry.
As a child, she enjoyed games, ballet, tap dancing, the piano and sports, including table tennis.
She developed an interest in the performing arts at a young age, which was to grow throughout her life, as did a love of travel and international cuisine.
Educated initially at Concord Primary School, she later attended Kaikorai Valley High School, and studied at the University of Otago and Christchurch Teachers’ College.
Longtime friend Linda McGilvary met Ms Jordan while studying in Dunedin in 1977, before Ms Jordan graduated with a BA (Hons) in geography.
The pair later flatted together in Christchurch while Ms Jordan completed a secondary teaching diploma.
A shortage of jobs in her chosen field led her in 1982 to the Dunedin City Council, where she worked until deciding on an OE, beginning in London, in 1984.
She worked as a temp and tour guide while exploring more exotic locations, including the Middle East, and indulged her love of theatre, returning to Dunedin with more than 80 West End show programmes.
Her lifelong love of travel was eventually to take her — by herself or with her close circle of friends — to Australia, South America, Asia and Europe, while her love of cooking and international cuisine benefited friends and family alike.
Her mapreading skills meant she was the designated navigator on many overseas trips, and her skills found more adventurous outlets too, former council colleague Gleg Sligo recalled.
In 1989, an unexpected vacancy meant Ms Jordan was asked to navigate for one of the better teams in Dunedin’s annual Sundstrom car rally, which included her brother Barry. The team won.
The following year, Ms Jordan formed her own team, made up of DCC staff including Mr Sligo, and won the best novice team award.
‘‘We had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but Pam held the team together brilliantly . . . incidentally beating her brother’s team outright, to Pam’s delight,’’ Mr Sligo said.
MS Jordan never married and had no children, but her caring nature led to her becoming an ‘‘honorary aunty’’ to her friends’ children, taking in a stray cat dubbed ‘‘Fluffy Thing’’ and enjoying a relationship with Suzie Swift, her beloved car, for 25 years.
Back at the DCC from 1987, Ms Jordan worked as committee secretary and governance support officer for the next 31 years.
Her roles included diligently recording the minutes of fractious, momentous or occasionally mundane council meetings, and serving as secretary for council companies and the Society of Local Government Managers.
But it was her work as electoral officer, overseeing Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council elections, as well as on representation reviews, which thrust her closest to the public spotlight.
Mr Chin, who was elected mayor on his second attempt in 2004, said it was in that role that Ms Jordan best exhibited her skills of decorum and discretion.
He recalled the phone call from Ms Jordan informing him of his failed mayoral bid in 2001 and the one three years later telling him he had won.
Even as the newly elected
❛ almost motherly care of paperwork and people at the DCC [which] was a steadying influence on all those who worked with her
mayor, Mr Chin could not get Ms Jordan to reveal which other candidates had been successful, as she wanted to tell them first.
‘‘She was so nice in the way she would let you know, ‘No, I’m not going to tell you’.’’
Mayor Dave Cull, who defeated Mr Chin in 2010, recalled Ms Jordan as a ‘‘consummate professional’’.
She had to be strictly objective in her role as electoral officer, but seldom let that slip, he said.
‘‘Sometimes she would just say ‘Yes, you might say so’ and that was as much as you would get.’’
Her properness was matched by her eye for detail — which Mr Cull recalled falling foul of on one memorable occasion.
His mayoral duties required Mr Cull to sign meeting minutes and initial every page — a ‘‘chore’’ which could take 30 minutes or more.
Mr Cull devised a shortcut, having a stamp of his initials made for his staff to use, but Ms Jordan was soon on to him.
‘‘Pam never confronted me about it, but it became very clear to me that my staff had been told, ‘That’s not the proper way of doing it’.’’
Longtime DCC colleague and governance support officer Jenny Lapham, who worked with her for 30 years, said for Ms Jordan, ‘‘everything had to be right’’.
‘‘We used to give her a hard time when we found an error in her work, just because it was so rare.
‘‘Which is why she was so good at her job — this skill was particularly valuable in her work as electoral officer, which required 100% accuracy in everything that happened.’’
Councillors also paid tribute to Ms Jordan. Cr Lee Vandervis said she was ‘‘dependable and utterly professional’’, with an ‘‘almost motherly care of paperwork and people at the DCC [which] was a steadying influence on all those who worked with her’’.
Deputy mayor Chris Staynes also encountered Ms Jordan’s wit in 2007, when she rang to tell him he had been elected as a councillor. Cr Staynes had responded by yelling ‘‘I’ve really done it now’’ to his wife in the next room, not realising Ms Jordan was still on the phone.
‘‘At my first meeting with Pam after the election she said in a matter of fact manner, but with a twinkle in her eye, ‘Yes Chris, you really have done it now’.’’
Council city services general manager Sandy Graham also found herself in an unusual position while working with Ms Jordan.
Until recently, Ms Graham was the council’s strategy and governance general manager, and Ms Jordan reported to her.
But Ms Graham was also deputy electoral officer, meaning she reported to Ms Jordan.
It was a rolereversal Ms Jordan delighted in as she handed over ‘‘the most annoying jobs’’.
Her dedication to council duties meant Ms Jordan continued to work, when her illness allowed and supported by colleagues, until just before her death.
She left behind clear instructions for after her death, including that her funeral was not to be held on the same day as a council meeting. She did not want her death to detract from council business.
Ms Jordan is survived by her mother and brother. — Chris Morris