Kaipara chief leaving council after four years

Kaipara District Council (KDC) chief executive Louise Miller is stepping down from her role after the new Council is sworn in at the end of October.

She has been in the job for four years and said she hadn’t taken the decision to leave quickly, or lightly.

“I’ve been thinking for some time about the skills a chief executive will need to lead Council through government reform, and to decide what I think is right for Kaipara and for my family,” she said.

“The new role, to stabilise Council through the reforms and to create a new direction for Northland, belongs to someone else. They will develop their own vision, with the other new Northland mayors and chief executives.”

Mayor Jason Smith said Miller had been a stabilising influence on Council during her tenure as the longest-serving chief executive in the past decade.

“Louise has overseen with flair the transformation of KDC to being a trusted Council that’s capable of taking on great big projects, such as planning for Mangawhai Central, generating the Kaipara Spatial Plan and the District Plan Review, building Pouto Road and setting up the teams for delivering the PGF unsealed road network repairs,” he said. 

“The organisational culture of Council has been invigorated for a new era and she leaves it in much better heart than it was at her appointment in 2018. Her calm and steady manner and unflappable style have served Kaipara well through a dynamic and challenging period.”

Miller will spend time travelling in Europe and visiting family before returning to New Zealand.

The recruitment of her replacement will be overseen by KDC’s remuneration and development committee, who will meet in the near future to draw up a process to advertise, interview, select and recommend a new chief executive to Council.