Deputy Mayor Walking Away From Job

Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt is about to lose his fourth deputy in five years, but Nobby Clark isn’t going anywhere.

In fact, despite the thyroid condition which has affected his speech, he plans to be more vocal than ever, back being an Invercargill City councillor.

Nobby’s last day as Deputy Mayor is next Friday, and along with Sir Tim can agree he too is frustrated with the current council.

Calling the ICC “ultra conservative,” he said there are issues that the council has dealt with, that he’s not happy about.

But in his Deputy Mayor role he was restricted with what he could say – as his position was one of leadership, and he felt like he needed to be keeping with the consensus.

“It’s a senior role at council, so it’s seen as the majority role.”

Nobby is keen to go back out and be more amongst the community, listening to the ratepayers like he used to do.

“I just think that as a group of councillors we lose contact with those who put us there,” he said.

Holding the Deputy position for the past 18 months, Nobby admits he wasn’t the most popular person – he was also the most outspoken, “and if I’m upsetting people around the council table I know I’m doing the right thing.”

Nobby won’t be standing at the next election in six months but wants to “just do the right things” until then.   He mentions Three Waters, the museum and various other issues.

When prompted on the Mayoralty, he said he knows of least eight people seriously considering running, but won’t reveal who – it’s a mixture of both internal and external candidates.

Gary Tong has already confirmed he’s one person standing, but Nobby said if you have too many people running against Sir Tim, then it splits the vote.

As for the new Deputy?  “I said to Tim, the ball is in your court.  I don’t want to be a part of it.”