Top job requires 'clear vision'

The Whangarei District Council's new chief executive, Rob Forlong, takes up the challenge laid down by Kane Rapana at Whangarei's Terenga Paraoa Marae. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The Whangarei District Council's new chief executive says he is emerging from his bureaucratic "cocoon" in Wellington to get back to the people of a district in which he lived for several years as a child. Alexandra Newlove spoke to Rob Forlong following his spirited marae welcome to the district, on what he described as "the best first day of work ever"

If Rob Forlong has a plan based on the six months' research he did to secure the Whangarei District Council's top job, he is not giving anything away at this stage.

He insists he will first focus on listening to the public and staff and getting to the bottom of what is and is not working in the district. He hastens to add, though, that things are already in promising shape.

Mr Forlong was formally welcomed on his first day as WDC CEO with a powhiri at Whangarei's Terenga Paraoa Marae.

"Having a clear vision is really important to me, so that's one of the first things I'm going to be talking to the councillors about. Then it's a case of getting down to work - being as efficient and cost effective as we can," he said.

Efficient local government should in some ways be invisible, he believed. Roads should be unremarkably stable, lines on footy fields should reappear without comment, though this must be balanced by strong public engagement with decision-making.

The cloak of invisibility does not extend to the man himself, who says he intends to have a strong public profile - swanning through Whangarei Growers' Market on Saturday morning, pounding the walking tracks at Parihaka and sampling the craft beer offerings at the local pub.

"That [visibility] will be a double-edged sword I suspect," he said with a laugh. "It's also one of the main reasons I've come back to local government. After 10 years of being cocooned in Wellington it's nice to come back and talk to real people."

Mr Forlong has settled in his new home after three years at the helm of the Government's Environmental Protection Authority. He brings his wife Bronwyn - a yoga teacher and historian by trade - and two cats, Martha and Sid - the only family members with reservations about the move.

Mr Forlong is also the former head of the Environmental Risk Management Authority and has 10 years' experience as a chief executive. His local government experience goes back several decades, his first job being on Dunedin City Council rubbish trucks in his 20s.

"I'm acutely aware that most of the hard work is done by a group of people behind the scenes. My staff are really important to me and they will grow to be annoyed by the fact that I tend to wander round and plonk myself down next to them at times."

The whispers around Wellington were that Northland's four councils were working together after a period of turmoil and indecision over a unitary authority for the region, he said.

He felt that while Whangarei was renowned for its natural beauty, it was not just a pretty face. "There's a great sense of creative and community spirit in this place as well. I've been looking forward to this for a while ... I think it will be an even better place in a few years' time."

Mr Forlong will be paid $325,000 a year and replaces Mark Simpson.