KEY POINTS:
Far North residents can't expect to see businessman, engineer and surfer Wayne Brown wearing mayoral chains during the next three years.
"I'll be low profile," says the district's new mayor, elected on Saturday with a preliminary majority of 4759 votes over three-term incumbent Yvonne Sharp.
Mr Brown, 60, is not seeking to renew his contract as chairman of the Auckland District Health Board when it expires in a few weeks.
Instead, his focus will be on starting to implement his mayoral campaign policy giving "value for ratepayers".
Far North ratepayers, rather than council staff, will be put at the centre of council endeavours.
"I'll be addressing all staff soon on their obligations to do things for ratepayers - not to the ratepayers," Mr Brown said yesterday after a modest Saturday night celebration at his Mangonui waterfront home.
He's made it clear he'll bring a different style of local body leadership to the Far North district and its council.
He's not interested in traditional mayoral roles that might involve kissing babies or cutting ribbons at opening ceremonies.
"I'll be delegating some public duties. Why would I waste ratepayers' money driving all the way to Kohukohu to open something when I can get a local [western ward] councillor to do it," Mr Brown said.
"I'll be putting in a lot of [working] hours early on but they'll drop away after that once the council is running properly.
"And when surf's up in the summer, it might be more important than a council meeting."
Informal regular consultation with residents and ratepayers will take place on Friday nights in the public bar of the Mangonui Hotel, just metres across Beach Rd from Mr Brown's home.
"If someone wants to talk to me, they can do it in the bar and maybe buy me a beer."
Asked whether some council staff should be fearing for their jobs under his mayoralty, as was alleged in correspondence to local newspapers during the election campaign, Mr Brown said the issue was not about staff fearing for jobs.
"We'll have the right amount of staff for the jobs required to be done."
He expects a report soon from council chief executive Clive Manley on what he [Mr Manley] has planned.
"We'll look at what committees we've got and whether we need them all. We've got to have the council phone system changed so people can talk to someone who's got an answer."
Mr Brown wants to know why someone planning to open a Thai restaurant in a former burger bar on the Mangonui waterfront must have an extra 15 carpark spaces more than when "food was put on buns" under the previous business.
He believes he was successful in his mayoralty bid because his message about value for ratepayers was what voters wanted to hear.
"There was a big fear factor too. People have been frightened to offend the council in case they don't get the consent or permit they want."
Mr Brown claims some people wanted to publicly support him but were afraid to be seen taking his side.
Mrs Sharp, who lives at Opito Bay near Kerikeri and had been mayor since 1998, said it was hard to understand why she had lost heavily.
"The council is going well, it's in a strong fiscal state and there are good projects on the go."
Mr Brown, as a developer, had played on the resource management consent issue as if it involved only the Far North, she said.
Mrs Sharp accused Mr Brown of writing "derogatory material" about her in a newspaper column and saying that everything that might be wrong with the council was down to her.
"He was playing the woman, not the ball."
Mrs Sharp said she had the highest regard for council staff, who were professional people, and she hoped that what had happened in other organisations where situations were made "totally untenable" for some people would not happen in the Far North.
"It's a happy place to work. I hope it stays like that.
"It's been a full-on nine years, 24/7. I believe it's that sort of job and the community expects to see the mayor. Otherwise, you're selling the community short."
Mrs Sharp said she would now "kick back and have a bit of a holiday".
In the Far North mayoralty, Mr Brown polled 10,081 votes to Mrs Sharp's 5322.
The next highest polling candidate was Emma Gibbs-Smith of Russell, with 821. The other four candidates all got fewer than 500 votes each.