Tauranga City Council chief executive Marty Grenfell, one year in. Photo / George Novak
A week after becoming chief executive of Tauranga City Council, Marty Grenfell went to a library.
The former top cop saw a matted and crinkled children's book - "Stink: Hamlet and Cheese" by Megan MacDonald - and learned an eight-year-old boy had loved it so much he took it everywhere, including, disastrously, the bath.
The library fined him $10 for returning the unusable book. This unsettled Grenfell. Would the fine put the boy off his love of books? How would the incident be seen in the community?
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Everyone followed the rules but the outcome, as Grenfell saw it, was the opposite of the council's purpose: Try and enrich lives.
Grenfell had the council order another copy of the book. Following "a kerfuffle" over which department's budget the $17 or so would come out of, the new book was delivered to the boy.
Grenfell kept the damaged book has been known to trot this story out at speaking events as a metaphor for the council's culture and how he wants to change it.
But with the community's trust in the council at a low, it will take more than kind gestures.
Interviewed just over a year on from his September 2018 move from his "honeymoon" job leading Whakatāne District Council to Tauranga, Grenfell said his new job was initially "overwhelming".
"It felt like, for the first month or so, I was treading water trying to come to grips with the job, the organisation, the politics and the community expectations ... and look for a way forward."
He had a win in November when the council settled with the Bella Vista homeowners. Grenfell was credited for breaking the stalemate.
Grenfell has weathered more Bella Vista fallout since - including the release of two critical independent investigations - and the issue is not over yet with the council's prosecution, two Government determinations and the sale of the land to come.
By January, the council's executive team had been slashed from 11 to six, of which only two were survivors from the old team.
All senior leaders are doing a leadership development programme. The rest of the council has also been restructured.
He also launched independent investigations into four projects the council was "spending a lot of time defending". The results came out in April and were highly critical of some council project management practices.
There have been more reviews since, internally, to see where improvements can be made.
Grenfell also almost became the subject of a review when a resident accused him of making threatening comments. Other senior staff also faced accusations. An independent investigation was ordered and recently completed, but the council said the resident declined to take part.
He has met with several council critics, with varying success. "People are entitled to have their views; we can't change things overnight."
His goal was a community-centric and people-focused council that did not work in silos or retreat to the safety of its rules and policies when the outcome would be "perverse".
"I see this as a five-year process to work collectively to rebuild trust and confidence in the community."
The "honeymoon is over", but Grenfell said he had no regrets from his first year: "I'm still smiling."
Two survivors, one promotion and three outside hires: Meet Tauranga City Council's new executive team.
Christine Jones
General manager of strategy and growth
In nearly two decades in general management roles at the council, Jones has worked under seven chief executives - even acting in the role herself, briefly - and five mayors.
A qualified accountant by trade with an audit background, she joined the council in 2001 when it was still a district council.
She has had pretty much every portfolio in the strategic development and growth areas, as well as infrastructure and the museum.
Her current role is about planning for about what the city needs in the long, long term.
Paul Davidson
General manager of corporate services
The other survivor from the old executive team, Davidson has been at the council for 12 years in increasingly senior finance roles.
An Australian accountant, he came from an airport background with 10 years at Ansett in finance and industrial relations.
That's how Tauranga Airport wound up in his portfolio.
The attraction of local government was diversity, he said: "An airline does everything from prepping meals to flying planes. A local authority does everything from parking and barking to delivering infrastructure."
Gareth Wallis
General manager of community services
Born and bred in Tauranga, Wallis started his career in a rock and roll covers band. He spent 10 years travelling the world playing bass before moving into events management.
He had roles in the Fifa World Cup then the Rugby World Cup in 2011, working for Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.
He moved back to Tauranga to work for the council two-and-a-half years ago as the events manager, so his new role is a step up.
He has picked up some challenging areas with tricky histories, including streetscaping, homelessness and the Mauao base track among them.
Nic Johansson
General manager of infrastructure
Johansson, a civil engineer from Sweden, came to the council from 10 years with the NZ Transport Agency.
He has worked around the world - in the United Kingdom, China, Tanzania, South America - and speaks four languages fluently.
Transport is his biggest portfolio, but he also leads sustainability, waste and waters.
All need affordable long-term solutions, but investments need to be "balanced with some behavioural change".
Susan Jamieson
General manager of people and engagement
Invercargill-born, Jamieson moved from Auckland to take up her first local government job at the council.
"I spent so many years plotting and planning how I would get out of the place [Auckland], so it was a happy day this year."
Most recently, she was the centre manager of Sylvia Park, New Zealand's largest shopping mall. Her background also included stints at TVNZ, Lion Nathan and Airways New Zealand.
Among other duties, she's leading a revamp of the council's engagement activities, aiming to make it more of a two-way street with the community.
Barbara Dempsey
General manager of regulatory and compliance
Like Grenfell, Dempsey is an import from Whakatāne District Council.
A career manager, she was at New Zealand Post for more than 20 years before moving into local government.
In Whakatāne, she helped with the recovery from the devastating flood in Matata in 2005. When the Edgecumbe flood happened in 2017, she led the recovery team - a "rewarding, tiring, exhausting" experience.
In Tauranga, building services is one of her portfolios, leading a short-staffed but technically sound team battered by Bella Vista and at working at the "pointy end" of growth.
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