Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Thrilling and humbling relief – these are a few of the emotions I have experienced since discovering the community elected me to Tauranga City Council.
I'm thrilled to be working alongside Tauranga's best and brightest, as voted by you. I'm humbled at Tauranga's support for a fresh change to the council. And, I'm relieved my six-months of public exposure has worked out well for both of us.
I am thrilled to be able to write to you each week. I was a regular reader of former Tauranga City councillor Bill Falkner's column. So, I intend to provide you with similar insights into what is happening at council, while also adding my own flavour.
Firstly, I want to sincerely thank everyone who put their hand up to be elected. It takes a lot of guts to expose one's vision, values, and personality so publicly. They each made many sacrifices during many months – all for the love of their community.
It seems like an age has passed since I was told about the election result. But it was only three weeks ago. Our councillor inboxes have been humbly bombarded with invitations, including speaking engagements, opinions, and questionnaires, from the community wanting to get to know us.
Tauranga City councillors' first gathering at a two-day retreat was a fascinating experience. Finding common ground with people, who were your competition only two weeks ago, could have been an anxious time. But we realised we want to achieve similar positive outcomes for Tauranga. We just have different approaches to achieve it. This is a very healthy position for a new council to have.
Anyone who says local body politics is dead is wrong in my opinion. Yes, the low voter turnout needs to be addressed.
But many people have been invigorated by the changes voters have made to council.
People who usually ignore local politics have approached us, speaking passionately about their new-found hope for Tauranga's positive future.
The community's new-found passion has inspired this council to do things differently from the previous one. We want to address the issues, rather than applying sticking-plaster solutions. We want to have thorough, constructive debate about issues, not about personalities. We want to lead a culture that empowers staff to go the extra mile for the community.
My personal motto for approaching life is: ‘Be in. Be real. Be bold'. This will be an important reminder as the new council tackles the big issues during the next three years.