Rotorua's new mayor Steve Chadwick on the phone to supporters on Saturday. She says she's ready to get down to business. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua's incoming mayor is signalling a range of changes in the way the Rotorua District Council will operate in the future.
Steve Chadwick will become after a landslide victory over Mayor Kevin Winters on Saturday.
With final results still to come Mrs Chadwick sits on 10,999 votes with Mr Winters picking up 4518 votes.
"I'm excited and bubbling with ideas and now I want to get on with it.
"The mandate from the community was overwhelming, much better than expectation."
She said she was already impressed with the council's new chief executive Geoff Williams and was sure he would give her space to lead the city.
"The team at council has been seen to be divided and now we need to work in a much more unified way.
"I want to work on the great natural resources we have here, focus on bringing Rotorua back to being the spa city of the South Pacific and heating our homes with our geothermal resource.
"We have to get on with changing the CBD with some bold structural initiatives, which starts with finding out exactly what the retail sector wants it to be in the future."
She said she wanted to give the youth of the city more hope for the future.
"Many people have told me the city was losing its way so we have to engage better with the whole community - we can't fool ourselves because there's a lot to do here, but I'm at that time of my life where I can give it heaps."
Another of her priorities was to speak to the new regional council and start a debt reduction plan for the airport.
"I have an understanding with John Cronin (regional council chairman) and I want to get onto that this week as I now know he's been re-elected."
She also said there were some wonderful opportunities to work with local MPs Todd McClay and Te Ururoa Flavell.
"Resources owned by iwi are the key for our region moving forward.
"I'd love to see some of our geothermal staying in the city, rather than going into large power companies.
"We are going to take control of our own destiny and that's going to be really exciting."
However, she said she felt there could have been more change around the council table.
"I thought there might be four of five changes on council as there was a mood for change, but I'm very happy with the overall make up and I'm sure we'll work well together.
"We've got to see change in three years and I'm prepared to be measured on that change," she told the Rotorua Daily Post.
The first homes are expected to be connected by the end of June.