New KDC manager a firm Mangawhai supporter

Mangawhai resident Dr Jill McPherson has been recently appointed to the Kaipara District Council team as General Manager Planning and Community.

She had been working in a part-time capacity for the past year then covering a vacancy in the executive.

Dr McPherson’s background in local government made her imminently suited and experienced for the post she now occupies as a number of key positions are being brought in-house and gaps in capability are being filled.

The commissioners have been tasked with building capability and capacity in the organisation and as a result council has been going through a re-organisation.

“She has many of the skills we need to make this council a high performing organisation and I look forward to working with her and the rest of the team to achieve this,” said KDC chief executive Steve Ruru.

Dr McPherson lived in Northland in the 80’s and oversaw the Marsden Point Social Impact Project before starting what she calls her “local government career”.

She then worked for the Auckland City Council for over 20 years, including as Director of Planning and then as General Manager Arts, Community and Recreation.

At the time of the local government reorganisation in Auckland, she completed a number of transition projects, also involved in the establishment of the Vector Centre, a project associated with the Beca Group who have also had a close connection with Kaipara in the past.

Later she became Director of Strategy of the Regional Facilities Council Controlled Organisation for a short stint before coming to the Kaipara District Council.

“It’s a good team environment working in closer contact with the CEO, Councillors and staff,” she says.

A Mangawhai weekender from eight years ago, the pull gradually became too great for the McPherson’s to resist making a permanent home here on four acres near Tern Point.

“While we at council have a lot to work through in terms of the District Plan appeals, Local Government Act by-laws, the LTP, and the Annual plan, it means I can continue to live and work in the district that we have come to love so much,” says Dr McPherson, who relishes the challenge of playing her part in helping the recovery of Kaipara and sees her role as advisor to the community.

Though it still means travelling from her home in Mangawhai to Dargaville she does get to spend two days per week in the Mangawhai office, outside of which time is spent attending the plot of grapevines she and husband Cliff are establishing just as a personal interest.