Mayor's frustration and his question to those wanting his job

“What is your ability in the next three years to deliver another 20 outcomes for the city?”

A list of to-do tasks on Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark’s whiteboard from earlier in the term.

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Nobby Clark’s frustrations are evident.

The Invercargill Mayor is literally counting down the days until his time at the Invercargill City Council comes to an end at the October election, which he won’t contest.

“About 123,” he quickly answered when The Tribune asked about his daily countdown.

There’s been no shortage of less-than-desirable headlines since the former Ratepayers Association advocate joined the council six years ago. Firstly, as a councillor and then as Mayor.

Whether it be Code of Conduct complaints or public fallouts with council colleagues, controversy has followed Clark.

It continued last week when ongoing critics - councillors Ria Bond and Ian Pottinger - raised concerns about the way council meetings are being run.

Although Clark believes because of that angst, the magnitude of what the Invercargill City Council has achieved over the past six years was being lost.

“For a person - in Ria’s case - that has put her hand up to stand for mayor, if the best things she can do is say that the meetings are not chaired all that well, or take too long, aren’t there more important things in the community?” Mayor Clark said.

“It is not about [meeting] time, it is about outcomes. What outcomes in my time in the past six years have we got for the city?

“You show me anywhere else where a council our size has built a city block, a mall, as big as we have. We have got national awards for it.

“We are now heading towards an outstanding museum, as well as doing business as usual. We have done some fantastic stuff in the city.

“That is not just me, it is others as well.”

Clark was “absolutely” frustrated that the work over the past six years had been overshadowed by other sideshows.

The mayor has kept a personal list of goals that he has achieved, which he says he will release soon as his time in the hot seat comes to an end.

“That is not to say I have achieved them myself; I’ve been party to them,” Clark said.

“Probably at least half of those goals I’ve driven myself and have often swum against the tide, but I’ve got there.

“That list is at least 40 items long, and people lose sight of some of those things.”

His question to those who are now standing to be Invercargill’s mayor from October is this: “What is your ability in the next three years to deliver another 20 outcomes for the city?”

“Or are we just going to rubber-stamp business as usual. We don’t want that; we want to keep evolving into a city that is a good place to live.”

Let’s Go Invercargill…

Last term, Clark initially indicated he would not be standing for the council after his first term as a councillor.

He felt like he couldn’t get anything done because there was a bloc of councillors who Clark said routinely voted against anything he put up.

“When I was deputy mayor to Tim, it was horrible. That was why I was going to resign; I just couldn’t see a way past it.

“Now that’s democracy if they want to [vote] together, and there is still an element of that bloc on one side now.”

However, Clark was approached before the last election about potentially standing for mayor as part of a ticket.

The thought of potentially leading a council where he had others with similar goals appealed to him.

Clark sought out 10 other candidates who stood together as part of the Let’s Go Invercargill ticket. Five of them were elected, including Clark himself.

The others voted in from the ticket were Tom Campbell, Grant Dermody, Allan Arnold, and Barry Stewart.

The Let’s Go Invercargill ticket which stood together at the 2022 Invercargill City Council election.

On reflection, Clark said the ticket move was a good one. He felt the ticket helped bring in some “new and fresh” elected members.

“Absolutely stunning move. It really was.”

“You only have to look at the work Grant [Dermody] and Tom [Campbell] has done as first term councillors… Both those people have been influential,” Clark told The Tribune.

“I don’t care what people say about the ticket. The bottom line is it was a successful way of turning the sway of the council.”

Clark said while people “on the other side of the council table” had voiced some dismay at the ticket, because at times they voted the same way, he pointed out there were other occasions when they hadn’t.

“We stood on some common principles. Lower rates, the recycling tender, get the museum done, and more transparency in our meetings,” Clark said.

“They were the four things we stood for, and everybody that came in on the ticket agreed to that and stood by that.

“But once we get beyond that, I often don’t get the support of Tom or Grant, and Barry voted against something I put up [last week], and that is his right to do that.”

There has been some cynicism from some in the community that the ticket campaign was backed by big business players in the city, and whether that might have potentially swayed some decision-making.

Clark said the ticket, per person, did not spend a lot during its campaign.

“Yes, we did have some businesspeople [contribute]. From my recollection, we had three who you would call ‘big business’. But we had 17 all up, so the other 14 are people like you and me.”

While Clark deemed the decision to run as a ticket a success, he understood the same approach would not happen at October’s election.