Post-Election Workshop

David Ward, Chief Executive of Selwyn District Council has been involved in local government since 1991, spending the first 17 years as Corporate Services Manager for Tasman District Council, then six years as Chief Executive at Horowhenua District Council before taking up his current role at Selwyn District Council in July 2013.

David is focused on ensuring that local government is planning appropriately for its changing demographic and local economies. David is also a champion of local government best practice and of developing staff within the Local Government sector. David is a qualified accountant. Prior to entering local government, David worked in the commercial sector.

MDC Manager Economic, Community and Support Services, Dean has been the Electoral Officer for Marlborough since 1998. MDC was an early adopter of STV voting, becoming one of the seven local authorities which experienced the vote processing problems at the 2004 election.

MDC contracts out the processing of voting papers but, as Electoral Officer, Dean deals with all the issues that can attract public interest during the electoral cycle from the calling of nominations, local campaign complaints and the scrutiny of electoral expenses. Dean suggests patience and a sense of humour are requisites for successful handling of the role of EO.

Elizabeth’s career spans 35 years in the local government sector including Hamilton City, Tauranga City and Waikato Regional councils. She also spent six years as communication and strategy leader for Local Government New Zealand. Her qualifications include a degree in resource management and a post- graduate diploma in communication.

She is passionate about local democracy and engagement with local communities.

For the past 10 years Elizabeth has run her own business working with elected members and council managers as a facilitator and consultant advisor around strategic change, communication and engagement and crisis management. She is also a columnist for the LG News magazine - providing fresh insights and/or practical advice on local government issues.

Marguerite ensures that Auckland’s local democracy is robust, transparent and vibrant, and she believes the active participation and engagement of the many communities that make up this super-diverse city is an integral part of it. Her responsibilities include among others, supporting the Governing Body in its decision-making, organising the local body elections and recruiting and organising the six demographic advisory panels which help Council engage with and meet the needs of Auckland’s diverse communities.

Before joining Auckland Council Marguerite held several senior leadership roles at the Ministry of Justice and the State Services Commission. Prior to that she worked for several corporates in strategy, business development and performance improvement roles, including spending seven years with Ernst and Young in three countries.

Marguerite developed a passion for democracy in Cambodia in the 1990s when she joined the UN to organise the first free and fair elections after 25 years of war. She was also an international observer for the first multi-racial elections in South Africa in 1993. Born in France, Marguerite arrived in New Zealand in 1995 and has been a New Zealand citizen since 2000.

Marguerite has a Masters in Public Management from France and an Executive Masters in Public Administration from Victoria University (through the Australia-New Zealand School of Government). She is a keen sailor and enjoys spending as much time as possible on the beautiful Hauraki Gulf, and regularly practices yoga and meditation.

Julie has worked in local government since 1994. Starting as an information officer with Auckland Regional Council she entered the governance world when she took on the roles of Hearings Coordinator and Committee Adviser. Moving from Auckland to New Plymouth in 1999, Julie became a Committee Adviser with New Plymouth District Council. In 2013, Julie was appointed Governance Lead (“the Governess”) at New Plymouth District Council. Julie has had involvement in a wide range of Council related activities including international relations, elected member inductions and elections. Julie is currently a member of the Democracy and Governance Support Working Party.

Dr Mike Reid, Principal Policy Advisor, LGNZ. After starting his local government career at Christchurch City council Mike has been with LGNZ since 1996, during which time he has worked in a diverse range of policy areas ranging from local governance and social policy to legislative change and local democracy. He currently leads LGNZ’s localism programme. Mike completed his PhD on the topic of strengthening local governance and local government in in 2011 and is currently on the board of the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies. He speaks regularly on local government matters and has published widely.

Donald has worked for in local government-related roles for the Local Government Commission and the Department of Internal Affairs for a number of years.

This included working for the Commission in the late 1980s when the New Zealand-wide reorganisation of local government took place and then continuously since 1997. Activities since then have included 9 rounds of representation reviews, several reorganisation processes, and the determination of boundaries, wards and local board arrangements for the Auckland Council in 2010.

For the Department of Internal Affairs, Donald was for a number of years Manager, Local Government Services which included responsibility for some electoral matters – the STV calculator, approval of voting documents and election monitoring. This was carried out alongside the Rates Rebate Scheme, the National Dogs Database and the Lake Taupo Harbourmaster.

Dale Ofsoske is Managing Director of Election Services, providing electoral services, including assistance with democratic reviews, to a large number of local authorities.

He is an experienced electoral officer (since 1985), foundation member and deputy chair to the former Taituarā Electoral Working Party, current member of the Taituarā Electoral Sub-Committee and honorary Taituarā member. Dale is electoral officer for a number of councils, including Auckland Council, and brings his expertise and widespread knowledge on electoral matters to this forum.

Warwick has worked in local government for 32 years, firstly as Administration Manager at Papakura District in 1986 and Central Hawkes Bay DC, then as Returning Officer for electionz.com since 2000.

Warwick is Electoral Officer for 19 councils and 6 DHBs, and numerous public and private sector organisations. Warwick and his team carry out approx 200 elections in NZ each year, most of which use online voting.

Warwick has considerable experience in candidate management and electioneering/campaigning practices, particularly the use of social media by candidates.

Dominic Tay is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Local Government Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. He works mainly on local government electoral policy and currently leads the Department’s work on Māori wards and constituencies. He joined the Department in January 2020 after serving as Deputy Electoral Officer for Wellington City Council at the 2019 local elections.

Viki has been involved with the local election project in the print and mail division of NZ Post since 2010. During that time she has had several roles in both Auckland and Christchurch.

For the 2019 election cycle Viki worked closely with a team of developers, testers and account managers to deliver Votext and the print and mail of the voting documents. Viki also works with the mail delivery division of NZ Post as they deliver the voting packs and manage the return of the completed documents to the councils and their partners.

Ross is the Manager, Enrolment and Community Engagement Operations at the Electoral Commission – a role he has held since August 2016. In that role Ross is responsible for the day to day operational delivery of enrolment and community engagement services out of the 17 Registrar of Electors offices from Whangarei to Invercargill.

Ross’s previous roles have included Manager, Business Assurance for the Service Delivery and Operations Branch at DIA, Deputy Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Manager Fair Trading Investigations at the Commerce Commission, and a 15-year career in the New Zealand Army.

Ross lives on a small life-style block on the Kapiti Coast with his wife Maria, two Alpacas, one pig, six chickens, five ducks, and a ginger cat. In his spare time he likes to ride motorcycles and watch Netflix.

Raymond re-joined Taituarā in June 2014 as Sector Improvement Manager, before commencing his current role as Chief Advisor at Taituarā. He has spent most of the last 20 years in local government related roles, most recently with the Department of Internal Affairs.

He describes his job as two-thirds providing assistance to the local government sector and one-third providing advice to central government on local government matters. His ambition is to help develop a Local Government Act that doesn’t require changes every 18 months. He asks that you wish him well with this task.

Kate is our General Manager, Sector Projects. Kate is responsible for developing the Well-beings Indicator Project and overseeing the Vote 2019 project as well as other developments in the sector Improvement area for Taituarā.

Kate’s previous roles have included Policy Manager at LGNZ where she worked on Better Local Government Reforms, the Productivity Review on Regulation, as well as other policy areas. Prior to that she was Strategy and Policy Manager at New Plymouth District Council.

Kate came to New Zealand fourteen years ago where she was Regional Head of Business and Enterprise in the Regional Development Agency for the North East of England and Chief Executive of the Northern Business Forum.

Kate has been a Director on several Boards in the UK and set up Excellence North East to run the Business Excellence Assessment Programme using the EFQM Excellence Model.

In her spare time Kate enjoys music, reading and good food.