Christchurch mayor says he has the world’s best job - four days out of five

Sunday, 22 October 2023

Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger took office 12 months ago and has faced a few missteps and broken election promises along the way. Christchurch senior civic affairs reporter Tina Law takes a look at his year.

Phil Mauger says being Christchurch’s mayor is the best job in the world - well for four days out of five, that it is.

“You’re only as clever as your last email,” he says, pointing to the constant daily pressures of such a public job.

Mauger, now aged 65, was elected in October last year after narrowly beating former health board boss David Meates by 2271 votes.

Reflecting on the last 12 months while sitting in his lounge on the sixth floor of the council’s Civic Building, Mauger admits to having second thoughts about the job early on.

“I am loving it, but if I’m being totally honest, for the first two months I thought ‘what the hell have I done?’”

He quickly adds: “But now I am really loving it.”

Mauger has come under fire during the year for not delivering on a promised low rates rise and for changing his stance on selling council assets.

Just this past week, he declared the council was in “shit creek financially” and cuts to libraries and swimming pools were on the cards to avoid an 18% rates increase next year.

He was widely criticised for saying some of Christchurch’s smaller libraries were “just a building with some books in”.

Mauger admits he struggled in those early days with chairing meetings and public speaking, and some might say he still does.

His predecessor Lianne Dalziel thrived in these aspects of the job and she was good at it; a life-long politician and a former Cabinet minister before spending nine years as the city’s mayor.

Mauger has a business background. He became mayor after one term as a councillor, following years of running his family company Maugers Contracting.

His council meetings are heavily scripted and, like many politicians, his speeches are written for him.

Public speaking and chairing meetings, he says, are his least favourite parts of the job.

“I’m getting a lot better at public speaking because I was scared to death when I first started doing it. I hang on to my notes like my safety blanket but I don’t really use them much [now].”

He lost control of a council meeting in August which led to five councillors walking out during a public deputation from a disgruntled city lawyer. Councillors believed the lawyer was “rude, nasty and disrespectful”.

To his credit, after the meeting Mauger admitted he could have handled it better and said he would get more training. He then added, “you’ve got to remember she is a very strong lady”.

“It was a big strong lady day.”

His words have got him in trouble a number of times in the past year.

There was the time in March when hundreds of School Strike for Climate protesters occupied the council building and asked Mauger if he believed in climate change. He responded by saying “after the events of what’s happening in the North Island, certainly”.

The protesters took him to task, saying they were appalled it had taken him that long to believe in the most pressing issue of our time.

Later the following week, he clarified his statement, saying he had in fact believed in climate change “for yonks” and what he was trying to say was that climate change was a lot more real to people now, following Cyclone Gabrielle.

In May, his words got him in trouble with council staff. He accused them of “running amok” and said they needed to be “reined in” after taking out a lane of traffic on a city street to put in a temporary cycle lane.

Other councillors came to the staff’s defence, saying they were only doing what the council had agreed to. They accused him of not reading his agenda properly.

Mauger is a people person, so it is hardly surprising that his favourite part of the job is meeting people.

He says he loves visiting innovative businesses and leading citizenship ceremonies.

“There’s some real clever stuff going on here in Christchurch and I didn’t know anything about it.

“Citizenship ceremonies are bloody good, especially seeing the wee kids, the look in their eyes is great.”

Meeting volunteers is another favourite part of the job for him.

“There’s so many volunteers out there doing stuff for nothing and not waving their arms around wanting any recognition.”

Mauger also spends one day a fortnight out in the community, visiting different areas, usually alongside a councillor or council chief executive Dawn Baxendale.

That is one election promise he has kept.

Another is a plan to increase parking around Christchurch Hospital, which is due to be trialled.

He has also succeeded in getting his beloved roving footpath crew over the line.

The fix-it crew is one of his biggest achievements so far, he says.

The $2 million scheme sees a team of contractors make quick footpath repairs across the city. Footpaths are a bugbear in Christchurch. More than 44% of respondents to the council’s residents survey said they were dissatisfied with the condition of footpaths.

“That is the bit that people see first when they walk out of their house. We’ve got to make people as happy as they can for the rates they pay.”

That leads to promises not kept - rates.

Mauger said during the election campaign he would keep the rates rise to 3% or 4% this year. It ended up at 6.4%.

“I’m happy the increase was as low as it was, even though some people said that I said it would have been lower.”

He was quickly reminded by this reporter, people said that because it was true.

Mauger then admits that coming into council and seeing what was going on has given him a different perspective.

Another election promise that seems on shaky ground, is his declaration during the campaign that he would not sell any of the council’s companies, like electricity lines company Orion, Lyttelton Port or Christchurch Airport.

Yet he voted to explore the possibility of doing exactly that shortly after the election, when a report recommended a partial sell-down to repay debt and reduce rates.

Mauger also said last month the council will have to sell assets or do less. He would prefer the council explores selling some of its excess land first, but says everything is on the table in a bid to reduce that projected 18% rates increase next year.

Even council libraries and pools are not safe, Mauger said this week, after declaring the council was in “shit creek financially”.

He said swimming pools could have their hours reduced, some new water mains might not be put in, roading work might be delayed and cycleways could be on the chopping block.

It was his singling out of smaller libraries - ones that were “just a building with some books in” - that has sparked outrage in the community and resulted in a deluge of letters to the editor.

This all points to a big second year in the job for Mauger, as he leads the council through the development of its 10-year budget amidst not only a cost of living crisis but a climate crisis too.