Editorial: Region's leaders need to step up

Either we're an apathetic bunch or the Bay's elected representatives are good at keeping a low profile.

I suspect it's a bit of both.

A Bay of Plenty Times Weekend survey of 100 people picked randomly from the Tauranga phone book found many did not know the Bay's mayors, regional council chair, health board boss and city councillors.

No one could name Sally Webb as Bay of Plenty District Health Board chairwoman.

Only 11 people named John Cronin as Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman and just 12 people knew Ross Paterson was Western Bay of Plenty District mayor.

Stuart Crosby was named by 71 people, but that meant 29 did not know he was Tauranga's mayor.

The four local bodies these people lead are responsible for making major decisions that affect people's lives and manage millions of dollars of assets and public money, and the results of the survey come just weeks before the local body elections.

Mr Cronin said the low recognition of his role was a "good thing" because he preferred to keep a low profile while Mrs Webb, the health board chairwoman, was not disappointed no one knew who she was because the board's focus was on the specialists providing health care.

"I like it to be the people who provide the services who get the publicity," she said.

In my view, having a public profile is part of the role of an elected representative - not that the low recognition rate is entirely their fault.

Apathy plays a part as does the distraction of modern life. People will often have an in-depth knowledge of the latest viral video trending on YouTube but have little or no knowledge of how their council is spending their ratepayer funds.

Perhaps Mr Crosby put it best when he said if more people took care to know who they were voting for and why, residents could have better representation and help steer the direction of the city.

If ratepayers want to have a say on the city's future, they need to get out and vote.

They also need to show an interest.