Mahurangi Matters, 28 April 2025 – Off the Record

Going above and beyond

Anyone who’s ever had the joy of juggling work, children, school holidays, etc. would have sympathised with a senior official from Auckland Council’s stormwater management division Healthy Waters last week, after she was late to a Rodney Local Board workshop. Having failed to appear online at 1.30pm as scheduled, a colleague told members the officer was actually on leave that day, but had agreed to present the item anyway, before going off to try to track her down. Moments later, the slightly flustered official appeared on her phone screen. “I’m so sorry, I thought this was at 3.30pm,” she said. “I’m at the zoo.” Like a true pro, however, she then gave a flawless 20-minute presentation on a major flood resilience programme and answered more than half-an-hour of very curly questions, distracted only slightly by the squealing brakes of passing trams.