Invercargill City Council (ICC) Mayor, Nobby Clark, believes he is well on track with the goals he set for the council when he took office over 100 days ago.

The culture at the ICC has changed, according to Clark.

“Councillors work in a more collaborative way. We no longer have meetings behind closed doors. We make sure that the meetings are more open, so people know what’s going on,” he said.

He has swapped his predecessor’s mayoral cloak and chain for a standard business attire and dropped the “your worship” title in favour of a less formal address.

At the start of his term Clark focused on opposing the Three Waters reform, building a new museum in Invercargill, and protecting the jobs of the disabled people working at the recycling plant. 

Clark put building a new museum on top of his priority list. Under his leadership the ICC councillors voted in favour of a plan that will see a museum base building complete in December 2025.

Closed in 2018 for earthquake repairs, the old Southland Museum will be demolished and a new one built in its place. The council approved the decision to build a storage facility at Tisbury.

When completed, the Southland Museum and Art Gallery (SMAG) collection will be relocated from the current building to the storage facility.

“Next we want to approve plans for the new building. It’ll be a modern, interactive museum. There will be a space for the iwi to tell their story. Tuatara will stay at the museum as it’s a major drawcard. This wasn’t the plan of the old council, which wanted to move the tuatara to a separate building,” Clark said.

The old Southland Museum was combined with an art gallery under one roof, but this is about to change.

“We want to let go of SMAG and build a separate art gallery, which may be located next to the museum.” 

Clark’s second priority is the need to find an alternative water supply for the city. 

“We are one of the few councils in the country that only has one water supply and that’s our local Oreti River. If that’s compromised, we’ve got about three days’ worth and then we’re in serious trouble. We are desperately trying to find an emergency water supply,” he said. 

His third priority is to protect jobs of disability workers at a local recycling plant. 

“The previous council wanted to contract out the recycling facility because it was perceived as inefficient. This would mean that about 40 disabled people would lose their jobs. We have extended their [the Southland Disability Enterprises] contract until 2027.”

One of the biggest challenges for Clark and ICC is housing.

With some large projects in the pipeline, which include building a liquid hydrogen plant 20 times bigger than any other in the world, two new salmon farms, a large data centre and an oat milk factory, there will be an increased demand for housing as the workers involved in these projects will need accommodation. 

“We are going to build more houses. The council has some spare land which can be sold to developers. We want to open the unused land to development.” 

Asked about the impact of his job on his private life, he said there certainly is an effect, even though as Deputy Mayor he did a lot of work beyond his responsibilities. 

“In a position like this, you need a person to talk to off-line. My partner [Karen Carter] is that person. But if I come home from work frustrated or angry about something and off-load it on her, what is she supposed to do with it? It’s not fair on her. I need a mentor, which I currently don’t have. It can be quite a lonely job,” he said.

Despite that, Clark says he is very happy in his job, but will only do one term.

“I’m too old to be going beyond that,” he concludes.