Jim Mylchreest has enjoyed have the grandchildren over – and being able to spend as much time with them as he likes.
It was just a day after he celebrated his 70th birthday that Jim Mylchreest was ousted as Waipā’s mayor.
He was aiming for a fourth – and probably final term – having spent nine years in the job.
“I thought it would be close – but I thought it would be closer,” he said of the result which saw Susan O’Regan win by almost 2000 votes.
Election night was a victory for female candidates in regional and district council elections all over the Waikato.
Not so for all male leaders. Mylchreest was rolled, Waikato deputy mayor Aksel Bech failed to get the top job, the only one he sought, Waikato Regional Council chair Barry Quayle failed to get in after switching from Hamilton to the Waipā King Country seat and his predecessor Russ Rimmington was also ousted.
Mylchreest banked on his reputation to get back in – he spent a third of what rivals O’Regan and Chris Woodhams paid out for their election campaigns. It’s a decision he says he doesn’t regret.
It’s Thursday morning and Jim Mylchreest is looking relaxed and fit.
There are upsides to not being a mayor.
“Since October I’ve been trying to catch up 30 years of inattention to our lifestyle property,” he explains.
He’s also been able to spend time with his family – including five grandchildren. Being mayor is a seven day a week job and Mylchreest took pride in endeavouring to accept every invitation.
Jim Mylchreest has been on home duty this year. Photo: Roy Pilott.
His siblings live close and of the five Mylchreest children, two are in Hamilton, one has returned home, one is in New Plymouth and the other in Wellington.
But now he’s wondering what the future holds – is this retirement life the way, or should be get back into public life in one form or another?”
“I’ve got to make up my mind on whether I do go and look for something else to do or whether I just accept age has caught up with me.”
He now looks back on the election result with a touch of humour, but also reveals the unusual emotions it brings.
“I don’t like to think I’ve passed it at 70 – but a lot of people obviously did.”
The sentence is ended with a laugh.
He found it quite strange when Cyclone Gabrielle was doing its worst n Waipā.
“I’m thinking I should be out there doing something – and I’m not.
Nine years as mayor, then nothing.
“It’s an instant cut off, if you are planning to stand down, it’s probably not quite the shock.
“To lose 45 years of experience and knowledge – it’s effectively wasted. It’s something I’m mulling over – what to do next.”
But it goes with the territory – that’s what you accept when you put your hand up for local or central government, he says.
Our chat covers his views on central government, achievements, critics – and a strange request to the Audit Office.
He acknowledged letter writers to The News – and one in particular – who complain that population growth in Waipa was not necessary.
“There is a kernel of truth in it. One of the big issues for New Zealand is to determine what the level of growth is. There has been no national debate on what size we want New Zealand’s population to be.
“The infrastructure that was put in in the older parts of town and cities around New Zealand was designed for one house on a quarter acre section and 35 per cent site coverage – so it you allow 85 per cent site coverage the system can’t cope.”
Jim and Robyn Mylchreest with the Prince and Princess of Cambridge, William and Catherine, April 12, 2014.
Other callers to The News would occasionally reveal they knew something – the mayor’s wife Robyn was chief executive Garry Dyet’s PA – (and still is).
The background was Mylchreest, a Waipā County Council staffer, employed Dyet as an environmental health officer 30 years ago when Robyn was a council secretary.
“When I got into office – and I’ve got a really good working relationship with Garry Dyet – we said if it doesn’t work, Robyn would resign. We ran it by the Audit Office and got a clearance.
“I would joke that I’m the only mayor in the country that’s got Audit Office approval to sleep with the chief executive’s PA.
“I don’t think it would work in a lot of places, I think it worked well here – there were no secrets, no hidden agendas. It’s critical for good local government for management to work openly with their political masters, for want of a better word … and that’s why I think Waipā has done so well even before I was mayor. There has always been a strong relationship between the political arm and the management and having aligned goals.”
On social media he was less complimentary.
He doesn’t do social media.
Susan O’Regan
And he hopes his successor O’Regan doesn’t spend too much time reading what’s on there – “because it’s soul destroying”.
“Continually you’ve got to tell yourself 95 per cent of the population are good people who appreciate what’s going on.
“You just think what a miserable life they must have.”
Of his successor Susan O’Regan, who he called to congratulate as soon as the result was announced – and who he appointed Strategic committee chair to lead the Long Term Plan consultation … “I’ve got no criticism – she’s an astute lady”.
See: Make it worth it….
