Introducing your new mayor for the Far North, Moko Tepania. Photo/Tipoki Photography
Introducing your new mayor for the Far North, Moko Tepania. Photo/Tipoki Photography
Moko Tepania has made history as the youngest and first-ever Māori mayor of the Far North district.
After a tense, week-long wait, the announcement finally came late Friday night that the 31-year-old had taken out the mayoral race against top opponent and former deputy mayor Ann Court.
The initial election progress results released last Saturday showed Court was in the lead by 245, sitting at 5995 votes to Tepania's 5750.
One day later, however (and after Saturday morning's last-minute votes had been counted) their positions switched.
At that point Tepania had 7535 votes to Court's 7288, giving him a lead of 247.
The final result on Friday showed Tepania had received 7805 votes to Court's 7362, a margin of 443 votes, confirming him as the new mayor.
Last Sunday, Tepania had been reluctant to celebrate, saying it was too soon to call.
After receiving the good news from Far North District Council CEO Blair King on Friday, however, Tepania said he could finally let out a sigh of relief.
"I was at home with my whānau who had been waiting with me all week to get the news," Tepania said.
"I was originally told we'd know by Tuesday, but then when 5pm Friday came, I thought oh my goodness, what's going on?
"I had prepared myself for the worst so I couldn't be let down, but I knew my family hadn't, so that was on my mind.
"When I got the call from the CEO, my family were just blown away and I was just so grateful to the people of the Far North for giving me this opportunity to be their new mayor."
The one-term councillor has had to give up his day job at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe to take on the mayoral position.
He's kickstarted his first few days on the job in Wellington, where along with the country's other new mayors, he'll complete his mayoral induction - 'aka 'Mayor school' - with Local Government New Zealand.
From there, Tepania (Ngāti Kahu ki Whaingaroa, Te Rarawa) will lead a 10-member council which, in another first for Te Hiku, has a Māori majority.
Tepania said while he understood the immensity of the role, he had a "dream team" of councillors behind him and was keen to roll up his sleeves and get started.
"It's still very overwhelming, to be honest, and still hasn't really sunken in," Tepania said.
"I can definitely feel the pressure, but then I look around at the phenomenal councillors at the table and am amazed at the level of not just local government, but life experience everyone brings.
"We are so lucky to have this group of elected members coming together.
"I truly believe when we say the Far North will be a better place after three years, if this group can't achieve that, then there is something fundamentally wrong."
Tepania said his focus from now until Christmas would be to build whānaungatanga- relationships, which he felt was essential to get right from the start.
He said he would make himself available to meet with a range of people kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) to assist with the goals of the new council.
"Relationships are everything and within our elected members, what the district needs far surpasses our ability to deliver on our own," he said.
"It's therefore important we have strong relationships with central government, our MPs, iwi, hapū, businesses, non-government agencies, etc, to build those foundations.
"If I try to hold the Far North on my own shoulders I'm going to get squashed, so we need to get everyone going in the same direction in order to achieve what we need for our district."
Another top priority for Tepania was the Far North district's roading and transport network, which he said was the overarching complaint he'd heard from residents during his campaign.
Improving general service delivery and what residents could expect from FNDC as an organisation was also essential and something he said needed to be addressed.
With former Far North mayor Wayne Brown now the new mayor of Auckland, Tepania said he hoped to reopen channels with the supercity.
"That's definitely something we need to explore with local government, to go beyond our geographical council zones to work together," Tepania said.
"Our relationship with Auckland is so important because what happens there has an impact and influence on Northland and even us here in the Far North.
In terms of who will help the new mayor achieve these goals, Tepania explained he'd chosen Bay of Islands-Whangaroa councillor Kelly Stratford to take on the important support role.
He said making the decision had been incredibly hard given the calibre of councillors, but in the end, Stratford had felt like the right fit.
"It was so very daunting to make that decision and I had to keep an open mind," Tepania said.
"I knew I needed to choose someone with who I could share the responsibility and who I could co-construct how we lead in the Far North.
Moko Tepania with his newly appointed deputy mayor, BOI-Whangaroa councillor, Kelly Stratford. Photo/Supplied
"In the end, I chose Kelly because she's a very hard worker who complements the skills I have and I think she'll make an excellent deputy mayor."
Stratford (Te Kapotai, Ngāti Hine-Ngāpuhi) was also in the running to become the next mayor, however, only managed to regain her BOI-Whangaroa ward seat alongside Court and newcomer Steve McNally.
The mother of three said while she didn't get the top job, she was honoured and privileged to work alongside Tepania as deputy mayor.
"I'm really excited to work with Moko and I think we'll make a good team," Stratford said.
"We're both the kind of people who look to understand different perspectives we might not have thought of, even if we don't always share a particular view.
"My biggest strength I believe is my ability to listen to people and to try to make them feel seen and that their needs are being addressed."
Stratford said she was looking forward to the challenge of her new role and had a range of short and long-term goals.
A more transparent and inclusive council was one of her top priorities, along with improvements to services.
"There are so many things I want to achieve, but if I can walk away having made a difference in people's lives, I'll be happy," she said.
"Whether that be through improving our level of service, be it rubbish, roads, maintenance or making sure we aren't polluting harbours with wastewater, they're all things we need to look at.
"Most importantly I want people to feel like they felt included, that there was more transparency and everyone felt represented. With more equity comes equality."
A pōwhiri will be held in Waitangi this week to welcome the new council members.
