So, as the Evening Standard clearly outlined, although Jill White had won the
election, there might still be a battle in establishing her leadership within council. In some respects her task was particularly challenging. Foremost among the challenges was the fact that seven of the councillors had themselves been unsuccessful mayoral contenders. Although they had all been congratulatory and encouraging on the night of her victory, it would be unrealistic to assume that there might not be some mixed feelings.
Nevertheless, despite the potential for friction because of disappointed ambitions, relationships within the new council seemed cordial and co-operative. Later Jill referred to this time as a period when she was leading "a channed life" and as "a honeymoon which had to come to an end" (Jill White Interview; December, 1 998). It was a time when she was still being celebrated as the new mayor, she did not have to make any hard decisions and everyone seemed positive and happy to work together. The first weekend after the election had been set aside for a councillors' retreat with workshops on topics such as legislation and committee structures.
From JiB White's point-of-view, the retreat gave the first of many chances she felt councillors needed to express their views on the shape, style, structure and leadership
of the new council. She was impressed with the degree of unanimity, the number of 'common threads' coming through in discussion. Councillors thought that there should be fewer committees than in the previous council, that decisions about who should chair committees should be governed by 'what was best for the city' and that council should work as a united team (Jill White Interview; December, 1 998).
For several weeks, Jill White delayed making decisions on recommendations to take to a full council meeting about her choices for the positions of Deputy Mayor and committee chairpersons. She was determined to take the time needed to make the best decisions. When she was sworn in as mayor of Palmerston North on 2 November, 1 998 at the inaugural meeting of the new council, there were still no hints as to who would be her choice for leadership positions or even when a decision would be made. The swearing-in ceremony was reported in the paper with stories on city manager Michael Willis's speech to councillors as well as Jill White's address to the meeting. Michael Willis reminded councillors that they would be:
. . . signing a declaration to represent the best interests of the city as a whole. By all means represent those who elected you, but in your final weighing up of the contribution to the debate or voting round the table, always ensure you are advancing the interests of the city, and not any one part of it, however important (Myers, 1 998b, p. l ).
In the same speech, Michael Willis also referred to the importance of staff and councillors working together. He described the relationship between staff and councillors as a partnership, with each needing the other to truly succeed. He dwelt on leadership, explaining that:
. . . we need your leadership, direction and decisions and, with great respect, you need us to help you in those tasks as we implement decisions. Leadership, of course can mean many things. But it does go beyond issuing instructions and commands. Leadership is more about instilling a sense of purpose and hope in all that we do ... I'd like to ask you to exercise your leadership in a way that goes beyond instructions. Inspire us with your vision and aspirations, with your hopes for the city (Myers, 1 998b, p. l ).
In this speech, the city manager does not merely point to the separation between policy and administration in the different but connected roles of officer and councillor. He also talks in a very positive, even rhetorical way, about the need for councillors to provide staff with inspiration and vision - far beyond mere instructions or commands. Michael Willis' speech is an exhortation and a challenge to the councils' newly elected politicians to demonstrate leadership.
Jill White's speech was not as involved with leadership as such but dwelt strongly on the themes of unity and interdependence. Her speech could be characterised more as a call to put the house in order before other objectives could be met. She spoke about the need to integrate social, economic, recreational and environmental goals, rather than putting them in separate compartments. She referred to the positive directions that had come from the councillors' retreat, such as the desire, "to work as a team, to work differently, to build on our abilities and skills, acknowledging that the people of the city have said they want change" (Myers, 1 998c, p. l ).
In making these points, Jill White was simply developing a theme that she had already discussed in earlier research interviews as a candidate and as newly-elected mayor. In her interview while a mayoral candidate, JiB White had spoken of the importance of a 'reconciliation' role for the new mayor:
Now I 'm not sure the perception is right, right in part only possibly, that there are a lot of divisions within council, between councillors and staff, and between council and the city. The divisions are there, but I don't know if they're there to the extent that is always perceived. There are some ... people on council who have been fairly abrasive. I see a considerable difference from when I was on council in the 1 980s, for example, when you could have quite profound differences with people, but there was still a sense of working together. Now, from the outside anyway, that seems to have gone to an extent and council seems to have been quite fractious. And certainly one or two exchanges I've heard, sitting listening in on recent council meetings, I have thought were unnecessary in their tone and in their sort of personal flavour. I have no problem with good healthy debates about issues, but there were personalities very definitely coming in. Then there is a perception also that the senior management has too much to say, is running the show. Now, it seems to me that there's a really important relationship here of working with, the councillor team must work with the council staff team, but at the same time are scrutinising the working of the council staff. It's an interesting relationship, because the councillors very much need the council staff, and we have some excellent staff on the city council. At the same time, councillors are there as representatives of the people, and so challenging a bureaucracy to an
extent as well. So you have to actually manage that, manage it so it's a healthy tension rather than a destructive tension. And my experience from the past is, that is more than possible. It is something that one can do to make a very sort of creative relationship. Once again there is a question of perception from the outside which might not necessarily match the actual reality. Or may; I suspect most of the destructive tensions reside with a few councillors, rather than the many (Jill White Interview; September, 1 998 ).
This account of what the ideal relationship between councillors and officers should be mirrors the comments of Michael Willis in his call for leadership from councillors at the first council meeting. From his point of view, councillors need to have an impact on the aspirations of council staff, to inspire them with a vision for the city and prevent them from becoming absorbed in carrying out bureaucratic roles for their own sakes rather than as a way of realising the desire for a better future.
'Creative tension '
Similarly, Jill White describes the interplay between the officer/politician roles as a
creative tension, both needing the other, but the politicians having responsibility for carrying out a monitoring role on behalf of the city's people. She also described the existing factions within council. Her first newspaper interviews on coming into office had stated publicly that one of her major goals would be to unite the new councillors into a team, working together for the good of the city. On the face of it this particular goal sounds like the straightforward 'motherhood and apple pie' objective which any mayor would have. But in the case of Palmerston North City, as Jill White outlined from her observations as a mayoral candidate sitting in on meetings, creating a team approach in council would be a major undertaking.
The previous council under the former mayor of 1 3 years, Paul Rieger, had been dogged by factionalism and in-fighting. Newspaper reports of councillors' bad behaviour had irritated the public. Councillors were seen as being childish and people found it hard to respect the council, or to believe that they were capable of acting in the best interests of the city, when they were so easily distracted by internal squabbling. An Evening Standard story centering on the length of time the mayor was
taking to reach decisions also referred to the "divisiveness" within council "during recent terms (White charts a steady course, 1 998, p.9).
This particular newspaper story gives a very perceptive account of the complexities of Jill White's situation and the reasons for the long delay:
Ms White remains tight-lipped on how discussions are progressing. Given the ambitious make-up of her council "discussions" might be too polite a word to describe the likely negotiations and jockeying occurring. Of the 1 5 councillors who sat around the table at Monday night's inaugural meeting, seven of them ran campaigns against Ms White for the mayoralty . . . This leaves Ms White in a tricky position. She doesn't choose the deputy mayor. She recommends a person with whom she believes she could work successfully. A majority of councillors must agree with her choice. So far, so good. But this decision is usually reached out of sight of the public in order to promote a united front when it is announced. The deals are done behind the scenes and it can be expected that much more lobbying will be going on this year than for decades. Ms White has to find a deputy who is acceptable to the rest of the council full of people with their own ambitions, a deputy with whom she can work and liaise with successful ly, and one she is happy won't use the position as a chance to challenge for the council leadership . . . Given these factors, and given the fresh look to the committee structures that Ms White wants to introduce, it's understandable some delays are necessary while she charts a course that unites rather than frustrates. If she finds the right deputy and puts the right structures in place then any time spent carefully now will have been worth it. But if the process becomes too bogged down then the cautious approach will risk looking like indecision. This is the first of many challenges Ms White will face over the next three years. The outcome will be a good indicator of future success (White charts a steady course. 1 998, p.9).
As the writer of this pIece has explained so clearly, Jill White's decisions on recommendations to take to council on who should be her deputy and on committee structures and chairpersons are fraught with political complexity, yet crucial to the council's effectiveness. A week later another story in the Evening Standard (City Eye, 1 998, p.2) criticised the delay because of the impact it was having on the practical day-to-day running of council :
That means none of the working parties or advisory groups set up in the last term of council can be formally recognized either because the standing committees who set them up don't exist . . . things are grinding to a halt and decisions which would normally be made at committee level are having to be discussed at special committee of council meetings. Let's just hope it all gets sorted out before Christmas because that's when the council traditionally closes down and no meetings are held in January. Hopefully the new structure will be in place well before then so that things can start in earnest in February
(p.2).
Nevertheless, the delay was caused by commitment to the process, not indecision. During this time, Jill White was talking with the councillors and staff, and weighing up all of the information she was gleaning from discussions about how council had worked in the past and what people wanted in the future. The ideas voiced by councillors included the importance of council unity, the need to make leadership choices based on what was best for the city, the value of streamlining the committee structure and the possibility of sharing or rotating chairperson responsibilities (Jill White, Interview December; 1 998).