When a new Council is sworn in one of their early decisions will be how to address how to appoint a new CE. Recent CE appointments have not showered the Council in honours. It was only when Mary Richardson stepped up to fill the role for a short period that the council started to settle down.
What did Mary bring to the role?
Mary is an old-fashioned public servant. Honourable people value performing their roles as public servants. The supposed “business” culture imposed on the public sector attracted people who tried to implement private sector analysis to public decision making. Of course there must be economically sensible discipline towards public decisions. However, the tendering out culture imposed on public decision making has often stripped the public sector of much needed institutional knowledge and memory. The long view is a fundamental element needed in public decision making.
When the Council sits down to decide who fills the role of CE it must do it carefully without either a left- or right-wing bias. My very favourite CE was John Gray who was an old-fashioned Town Clerk. He served for a lifetime in Local Government, and his driver was always the public good. He kept over designing engineers under control, whilst supporting investments which improved community wellbeing. As a Chartered Accountant he ensured financial balance wherever possible. He lived an abstemious lifestyle reflected in the fact that he had worn the same pair of shoes, regularly rebuilt, for decades. Fashion was not important to this suit wearing public servant.
In this article https://christchurch.infocouncil.biz/Open/2025/08/COU_20250820_AGN_10674.PDF it was recently reported that despite a Committee’s intention to recommend a salary increase for Mary Richardson, was respectfully declined by her.
Her public comments reflected here was a public servant cut out of the same mould as John Gray, and we have a lot to thank her for as she has stabilized the Council and personally taken a jaundiced approach toward huge salaries:
“Leadership in public service isn’t just about delivering results: it’s about upholding values. It’s important to acknowledge the realities our community is facing, especially the financial pressures many residents are currently experiencing,” she said.
Mary was a colleague in community services and on retirement, my successor as Executive Director of the Christchurch Methodist Mission; before returning again to make a uniquely valued contribution in her various roles at the Christchurch City Council, most recently as CE. The community, the City, the Methodist Church’s social services (not just in Christchurch, but throughout the motu) – and not least, I personally – owe a huge debt of gratitude for the selfless, caring and insightful service Mary has gifted us all. Aroha mai, aroha atu.