Bruce Kendall is on a roll, topping the election polls, winning at windsurfing world championships and now local board leadership, reports PJ TAYLOR.
A Howick Local Board new-term inauguration can be prone to throwing up surprises and last Thursday’s was no exception.
For the next three years, Bruce Kendall, highest polling candidate in the Pakuranga subdivision in the recent Auckland Council local elections, was chosen as the new chairman, on a show of hands six votes to five, over the chair of the last term, Damian Light.
Kendall was nominated by local board member Mike Turinsky, who finished second in the Botany subdivision behind Light in the triennial poll, and seconded by newcomer Luke Collings, of the Howick subdivision.
Light had been nominated by Katrina Bungard (Pakuranga) and seconded by John Spiller (Howick).
Kendall has been on a winning streak recently, as he’s fresh back from Athens, Greece, where he won Division B of the Windsurfer World Champs.
Then, at the October 30 local board swearing-in, in a rare move, Kendall and Turinsky introduced a concept to have been tried only twice before in Auckland Council history, suggesting the deputy-chair role be taken on by three members each serving a year.
The “split-term” idea got majority support on another show of hands.
There were then three decisions made on who was going to serve in each of the 12 months for this term.
Outcomes were that three newcomers to the local board, Kai Zeng (Flat Bush), Krish Naidu (Flat Bush), and Jack Collins (Pakuranga), will be Kendall’s deputies in that order for the next 36 months.
Naidu and Collins were decided on unopposed, while Spiller nominated fellow long-serving colleague Adele White (Howick) for year one, but she lost that vote to Zeng 4-7.
The deputy leadership decisions signal that first-term newcomers have been selected over experienced long-serving board members at a time when council is placing more responsibilities and decision-making on local boards, especially for transport.
In Spiller’s attempt to get former board chair White a year as deputy he spoke of the importance of having “experience and continuity” in council processes “to back up a new chair”.
Turinsky, one who voted for the newcomers to each have a year as deputy, talked about the experienced members being able to support the new faces, along with council officers, in mentoring.
When talking about Zeng and his relevant abilities, Turinsky said with “confidence” that “he can learn to be deputy-chair quickly”.
Kendall was pleased to be chosen as the new chair. He acknowledged Light as “absolutely awesome” in the last term, but for himself he has “aspirations to run for council at the next election” and sees this coming three years as building towards that by doing a thorough job leading the local board, in his third term.
“It’s a huge honour and privilege, and scary,” Kendall said. “Damian set the bar super high.
“I’ve got a good relationship working with councillors Bo Burns and Maurice Williamson, there are big challenges and I’m ready to step up. There are big things to get under way.”
Naidu, who has a lot of governance-service experience and some council involvement as co-chair of its ethnic communities advisory panel, was the only successful deputy-chair candidate to speak.
He said, “we want to work together”, represent Howick’s “diverse” communities and “collaborate” for the best outcomes for the ward’s constituents.
After the formalities of taking the declarations of office, Kendall and Peter Young (Flat Bush) told the Times one of the “big plans” is to progress the idea of a water sports park at Highbrook.
Kendall’s victory at the 2025 World Windsurfer Championships came 32 years after his last win at a world champs.
He claimed first place with top-three finishes in five course races and a slalom race, and winning the marathon.
- For more photos from the inauguration of the 2025-2028 Howick Local Board, see: https://www.times.co.nz/photos/2025-howick-local-board-inauguration/
