A year ago this Sunday, Susan O’Regan became Waipā’s first female mayor. She will be in Europe for the opening of the New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy, France so The News senior writer Mary Anne Gill caught up with her before she left and found out what the last 12 months has been like.
Susan O’Regan in the mayoral office. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Susan O’Regan opens the A4 notebook in which she made notes for our interview.
She asked the day before what The News wanted to talk about.
Your first year as Waipā mayor, the highlights, the challenges, the successes, the disappointments, we say.
As she looks down at the words and phrases, some with blue highlighter, she gets out of the chair walks over to her desk and picks up a pair of light blue and brown framed reading glasses.
“That’s one of the biggest changes. I do so much reading now and I need these more.”
Election Day
Susan O’Regan and husband John Hayward celebrate after her election as mayor. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
It was 1.30pm Saturday October 8 last year when the two term councillor – who risked all on her bid for the top job – took the call from chief executive Garry Dyet.
Standing in her bedroom, the only quiet room in and outside the house full of friends and family gathered for a party no matter the result, she listened as Dyet congratulated her on the win.
Overwhelmed with emotion and relief, she and husband John Hayward hugged and a few minutes later she gave her first interview as mayor to The News.
So, what has happened in the intervening 12 months, we ask?
There’s the glasses and a redecorated office for starters.
Nothing much had changed in it while the four men before her were mayor.
Mayoral artwork: l-r Teresa Siemonek, Julie Tate, Kathleen Bayer, Deshan Walallavita, Mayor Susan. Photo: Enrich Group, Te Awamutu.
Bright artwork adorns the walls now, a large meeting table is at the southern end where once a desk had been.
Her small desk is at the other side of the office, tucked into the corner where she can see the comings and goings down the first floor hall. Spotify music plays from her laptop.
“It’s been really fun. It’s such a privilege, a huge privilege, it’s the best job I’ve ever had,” she says about her year as mayor, a job she describes as “full time and then some.”
“It just plays to all of the parts about me as a person. I just love this district. The more time I spend out of the district, at mayoral things and local government things, I realise how fortunate we are.”
She acknowledges her work-life balance got out of kilter.
“I had to walk the talk and there is no easy way to do that other than accepting invitations. People were saying to me they were sick of opening the paper and seeing me there.”
There was no pressure from home but O’Regan’s conscience was telling her things.
“If I am not here, you are failing the people, and if you are here too much, you are failing the children, the husband, the farm.”
She feels she has the balance right now although recognises when the long term plan works begin next year, it will get manic again.
“I’ve just got to make sure I don’t over commit myself.”
The highlights.
Susan O’Regan speaks at the release of the kākāpō on Maungatautari. Photo: Stuart Attwood Photography.
The first – a triumph for Sanctuary Mountain, Maungatautari – was the return in July of kākāpō to the North Island after a 40 year absence.
The second was in April at the welcome ceremony for the international dragon boat festival competitors in Victoria Square.
A photo of her standing on a podium amidst a sea of pink is on her screen saver and mayoral Facebook page.
She referred to her late mother Katherine O’Regan who died in 2018 after a 10 year battle with breast cancer.
“It took every ounce of my being to not cry,” says O’Regan.
“I think I have been a bit surprised at how emotionally I respond to things. I thought I was a bit hard-nosed as a person. My emotional response to some of the community situations surprises me.”
Susan O’Regan speaks at the opening of the International Breast Cancer Dragon Boat Festival in Victoria Square. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Like the citizenship ceremonies which she moved to the Cambridge Town Hall.
“The council, the organisation and I have got better at reconnecting with our communities,” she says giving as an example the Ahu Ake spatial plan community engagement.
“It was incredible really. We met cow cockies in Te Pahu, teachers at Te Miro and lifestyle blockers at Pukeatua.
“The information we harvested was priceless.”
She describes her diary as “chaotic”.
“I love going to Rotary and Lions, school prizegivings. It’s the community part of the job that makes it.”
The year has had its challenges though.
“It hasn’t abated,” a reference to the central government reforms which has made it hard to plan and tough on staff as the rules kept changing.
Storm clouds ahead..
Susan O’Regan recognises there are some serious financial challenges ahead. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
She cites inflation, interest and insurance as the big three.
“Leading into our next long term plan, we need to be pretty honest with our community.”
O’Regan says discussion from Cambridge about a third bridge seems to have died down while the Cambridge Connections work is done on the transport needs for the town.
The work is nearing completion. “It’s the business case that’s required to acquire Waka Kotahi funding. It’s not just about a bridge crossing.”
Waipā has a good reputation among other local authorities. O’Regan says another local authority colleague recently said how impressed they were with the collegiality and civility with the way meetings were run.
The News has argued that is because a lot of the debate occurs behind closed doors.
O’Regan disputes that and scoffs at the suggestion of “secret meetings”.
“We don’t make decisions in workshops. We’re not a particularly divisive bunch. We’re really fortunate and that brings stability.”
There have been three major disappointments.
The first was being unable to change government’s mind about housing intensification, the second a lack of movement in the Cambridge to Piarere extension and the third when there was flooding in the streets of Glenview in Hamilton. Ponds and a dam near the area are privately owned but managed by Waipā. The infrastructure failed.
“I had to be very clear about my dissatisfaction with the failure of our organisation to respond in the face of pretty clear reporting about the need to respond urgently.”
The problems with the dam predated O’Regan’s arrival on the council seven years ago.
“It’s not that I mind wearing it, it’s just as an organisation we didn’t heed those calls.”
Susan O’Regan at the 2022 Waikato Chamber of Commerce Business Awards in November 2022. Photo: Mike Walen.
O’Regan is more sedentary now than a year ago when she played competition squash and walked regularly around the farm. Now at events she goes to in an official capacity, there are treats. She admits she has put on weight.
“One of the best pieces of advice I got was from Toby Adams who is mayor of Hauraki. ‘Don’t eat the sausage rolls,’ he told me.
“I’m trying to show a little bit of discipline in that space.”
She recently picked up an umpiring badge at her daughter Lily’s netball prizegiving.
“I’m better umpiring than on the sideline.”
So, what is the one thing she wants to achieve as mayor before the 2025 local body elections?
“I know in my heart what that is, but it would be wrong of me to express it simply because I would hate to be pre-determined.
“We shouldn’t be making decisions about what happens next week or next year. We should be longitudinal thinking. We should be better ancestors. Making longer term decisions.
“I know we annoy people. I know they get grumpy with the decisions we make. I accept and own that. We are making decisions that fit into a picture that lasts more than a three year cycle.”
As we wrap up, O’Regan reiterates how much she loves the job.
“It’s all colours of the rainbow though, right? Frustrating, rewarding, annoying, boring, everything. I’m very lucky, very blessed.”
Family affair: Susan O’Regan and family at her swearing in, from left: Lily, George, Jack, husband John Hayward, Emily and Ben. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
