In a moving ceremony at a packed hall the new Kāpiti Coast District Council mayor Janet Holborow and councillors and community board members were officially sworn in.
Ms Holborow was presented with the mayoral chains from her predecessor K Gurunathan who has retired from politics after two terms as Kāpiti mayor.
Representatives from three of the district’s iwi: Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, and Ngāti Raukawa welcomed the new council team, wishing them well for the challenges ahead during the ceremony at the Coastlands Theatre at Paraparaumu’s Te Raukura ki Kāpiti with a pōwhiri based on Te Ātiawa protocol.
The new mayor, district councillor Sophie Handford and new Paekākāriki Community Board members were sworn into their roles with te reo Māori.
Change was the promise on the hustings and change is reflected in the makeup of the new council.
Six of the 10 current district councillors are serving their first term. Lawrence Kirby, Shelly Warwick, Liz Koh, Glenn Cooper, Rob Kofoed and Nigel Wilson were officially welcomed to the table. Kathy Spiers was formerly a councillor at Kāpiti and is joined by returning councillors Martin Halliday, Jocelyn Prvanov and Sophie Handford.
Mayor Holborow says “The spirit of kotahitanga and whanaungatanga is what I aim for our council to build with our community.”
She says it would be important for the new council to build trust with iwi and the community to address the challenges ahead.
“With those principles as our guide, we will be the most strong in the face of the challenges ahead.”
Ms Holborow said the next three years presented opportunities to think about how people lived, providing for the creative community and encouraging business development.
“The world is a very different place than the one we lived in when we stood here three years ago but here in Kāpiti, one thing is certain and that’s the way our people come together in times of challenge to support each other through the pandemic, storms, floods and tornados.”
Ms Holborow announced her choice of deputy mayor Lawrence Kirby who was duly elected.
Absent from the ceremony was district-wide councillor Liz Koh who will be sworn in at the Council meeting on Thursday November 3.
