Another kind of cultural change is linking the council to the community, which was
mentioned by several of the mayors in their interviews. One mayor talked about the way that people contrasted her leadership to that of the previous mayor. He had taken a very 'hands-off approach to flooding in the district during his term but when flooding happened when she was mayor, Heather Maloney (Franklin District) said:
there was no way I could walk away like it was not my problem. So I pitched in and cleared out houses and shifted furniture. I don't know if it is the people's personalities or a male/female thing but previous mayors had never done those kinds of things. It's like they were above doing those things.
Yvonne Sharp (Far North District) also talked about flooding as a time when her leadership had been tested, as it was a 24 hour day, seven days a week time for her. She said that what was required was the ability to direct, guide, comfort and give hope.
Some of the other examples mayors gave of displaying leadership also showed that they identified with the community and that being mayor was something they were doing for the community rather than for themselves. One mayor, who had been a stalwart supporter of a bid for the Olympic Games to be held in the capital city, took the unpopular stand of arguing against continuing with the bid when it became evident that the financial resources required to keep up with the stiff international competition could cripple communities. Other mayors talked about reconciling competing demands in budget rounds, taking the lead in complex financial negotiations on the sale of a power company, and lobbying central government on siting a major hospital locally.
Other examples that showed that mayors' ways of working were relevant to transforming leadership included Joan Williamson's description of 'vision ' . She says:
The mayoralty is a bit like a puzzle. It is important that you help your council to fit the necessary pieces, all the time visualising the big picture and planning for sustainable growth and always see the need to fit more pieces so that we ensure we have a clear, progressive kind of pattern.
Her metaphor is an excellent way of picturing a need for openness alongside a need for structure. She uses another metaphor in discussing having to show leadership over amalgamation:
nobody wanted to be reorganised or amalgamated. In this district we had part of the district of Taumaranui, we had some that belonged to Rotorua, the Taupo borough and so there were groups of people who didn't really want to come together. A marriage that you agree on can sometimes be shaky but you get a marriage that is forced, it can be hell on earth. In this case nobody wanted to co-operate with anyone else. So that was what I concentrated on 1 0 years ago. I had to show that I was just as interested in the whole of the area as one big family and I have consistently done that. I was absolutely rapt that towards the end of the first term, I was invited to be a member of both community boards. Of course legislation doesn' t allow that, but they were so courteous to invite me. I know that some community boards have a resentment of the mayor being there, but certainly here, if I could vote on community board matters, they would have me do so. I do speak up at them and contribute and offer my view and help in any way. It is a good relationship and I think welding the district together is one of the most important parts of leadership.
Other mayors' transforming activities have included helping council to see a new role for itself and change its policy over time to become an advocate and a facilitator, espousing collective leadership, refusing to accept unemployment as a necessary evil, listening to people and explaining the underlying ideas and why their ideas couldn't be adopted during the annual planning process.
Examples of rejecting transactional approaches given by informants included insisting on the importance of maintaining one's integrity and freedom from bias as mayor and resisting manipulative lobbying as a technique.
CONCL UDING COMMENTS
This chapter has traversed the perceptions, ideas and expenences of the women mayors in office during the 1 998-200 1 term. As much as possible their ideas have been expressed using their own words and by grouping their responses under the
headings of leadership, gender and leadership, culture and leadership and their personal experiences as mayor. The purpose of this chapter has been to give breadth in covering the variety and diversity of experience of the whole range of women mayors, so that an almost panoramic view of similarities and differences among the m and their situations as mayors could b e distinguished and used i n answering the research questions. In the next chapter, a different approach will be taken and a single mayor's experience of leadership during the whole three years of the 1 998-200 1 term will be studied in depth.