Shotover issues spur Rewi to enter mayoral race
Mr Rewi, 62, said he had been contemplating standing for the mayoralty for the past four months or so, spurred on by issues at the Shotover wastewater treatment plant, something he believed would take "generations" to resolve.
"There was so much wrong about that ... and then I looked at what I thought was going wrong around leadership and I thought I've got skills where I can add value in that space."
Originally from Invercargill, Mr Rewi and his whānau moved to Queenstown 32 years ago. He has since been involved in a wide range of community groups and organisations, ranging from Scouts to junior and senior football, worked in the health sector and spent nine years as a volunteer firefighter.
He also has more than 20 years of senior-level leadership, government experience and qualifications in strategic and change management.
Mr Rewi is the founding chairman of the Mana Tāhuna Charitable Trust, formed in 2020, and is a SkyCity Queenstown Community Foundation trustee.
He is also the vice-chairman of the national Victim Support board, ministerial appointee of Herenga ā Nuku, the Outdoor Access Commission, and mandated Ngāi Tahu ki Murihiku representative on the Otago Regional Council's upper lakes freshwater catchment working group.
He has also been vice-chairman of the arts and culture heritage strategy and was the mayoral-appointed chairman of the Welcoming Communities steering group.
Mr Rewi said the Queenstown council was in a "tail-wagging-the-dog" predicament.
In a statement, he said the electorate had become "exhausted from issue after issue being exposed, and an executive leadership team [ELT] and council that has yet to see that they are on a burning platform".
"It's obvious that there has been poor decision-making and now it's for the new council and mayor to create an expectation of accountability, and that's a conversation with the CEO."
He believed the ELT was "at the steering wheel", when that role was for elected members.
Mr Rewi said the potential regional deal with central government on infrastructure, housing and economic growth presented a "whole lot of opportunity", and he supported the proposal as it stood, but cautioned there could be pitfalls.
He noted there was nothing certain about the regional deal and the government could withdraw the opportunity, particularly if it thought the region was not "being astute enough ... around finances".
He also said the council could do more to harness the power of the multibillion-dollar Māori economy, particularly partnering with iwi on critical infrastructure.
As to the site of the council's offices, he backed a main location in Frankton, which would enable staff to be under one roof and remove access barriers for the community, he said.
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