Henare O'Keefe has been a popular councillor during his time on Hastings Council. He is pictured at Flaxmere Park. Photo / Paul Taylor
Henare O'Keefe has been a popular councillor during his time on Hastings Council. He is pictured at Flaxmere Park. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hastings District councillor Henare O'Keefe has decided to call time as a councillor and not run again at the upcoming local body elections. He spoke to Gary Hamilton-Irvine about 15 years on council, his successes, his regrets and his plan for the future.
"Flaxmere is an opportunity. It is nota liability."
Those who know councillor Henare O'Keefe will have heard him repeat that catchcry over his 15 years representing Flaxmere ward on Hastings District Council.
O'Keefe has decided not to run at this year's local body elections in October, bringing to a close his long and colourful tenure on council.
"I have given my heart and soul to the cause," he said.
"You just have this feeling that you know it's right - 15 years is longer than I expected to stay.
"I am very happy with where Flaxmere is at in terms of the council's contribution. We have a supermarket coming, we are building over 150 houses, our population has picked up."
Apart from councillor Kevin Watkins, O'Keefe is the longest-serving councillor on Hastings District Council.
He said the death of his wife, Pam, was part of his decision to step aside.
"Pam passed away in 2020 and she has been at the heart of everything we have done.
Henare O'Keefe has been on the council since 2007. Photo / Paul Taylor
"Whether it is the children we have fostered, Flaxmere, the council, our mobile barbecue community - all that stuff she has been the absolute heart of it."
He said if his late wife had a few words for him about standing down from the council, he believed it would be "well done" and "follow your heart".
O'Keefe, who is a strong Christian and wants to travel and preach the gospel, said serving on the council had been an absolute privilege.
He said he had a lot of fun over the years serving alongside fellow Flaxmere ward councillors Jacoby Poulain and Peleti Oli, and the current crop of councillors and leadership was the best he had seen.
However, one regret would be the council's plans to drop from two Flaxmere ward councillors to one at the next election - a proposal currently before the Local Government Commission.
The proposal is part of a reshuffle of the council to make room for three Māori ward councillors.
A final decision around that proposal, including whether to axe a Flaxmere seat to make room, will be made by the commission by April 11.
"If it is not broken don't fix it. Two councillors have served Flaxmere well over the years," O'Keefe said, who opposed that part of the proposal.
O'Keefe, who turns 70 next year, was first elected onto council in 2007 after his mum and aunties encouraged him to run.
He said when the idea was first floated he replied he wasn't clever enough.
Flaxmere ward councillors Henare O'Keefe (left) and Peleti Oli at the Flaxmere Community Centre in 2020. Photo / Paul Taylor
"My mother said we don't want clever, we want you to put the heart and the blood and guts of the people on the table and keep it there.
"I think I have been true to that mandate," he said.
"When I first ran for council, to be honest, I did not even know who the mayor was, I didn't even know [councillors] got paid."
He said during his time on council he was most proud of the development of Flaxmere and being a voice for that community.
"I have never known a more genuine, caring and honest community.
"We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if I ever wanted to go to war with a community I would want Flaxmere right beside me."
He said he had no plans of slowing down after the council and wanted to travel around New Zealand sharing the good news of the Christian faith, and a message of "humility and love and kindness".
"All I want to do now is bless people wherever and whenever I can. That's what my darling Pam would want me to do."
O'Keefe has lived most of his life in Flaxmere and currently lives just outside the suburb.
He and Pam have fostered more than 200 children either in their own home or during a long stint as the house parents of an established foster home in Havelock North, caring for up to 13 children at a time.
O'Keefe grew up in Ruatoria north of Gisborne and moved to Hawke's Bay as a teenager with his family, which included 10 siblings.
He worked in the Tomoana Freezing Works near Hastings, as a youth justice coordinator with the police, an ambassador for Duffy Books in Homes, in social work, and has contributed decades of volunteer work to the Flaxmere and Hastings communities.
