School’s out - Mike Pettit’s in
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
On Monday morning, the new mayor of Waipā District went to school as usual, not to plan lessons, but to make plans for a new school new principal.
Mike Pettit’s new full time job will be running a district made up of two distinct towns - Cambridge and Te Awamutu, and the smaller urban settlements of Kihikihi, Pirongia, Ōhaupō, and Leamington.
Later on Monday, he made his first visit as mayor to the council’s HQ in Te Awamutu to meet with senior staff after his election win over the weekend.
Preliminary results (excluding special votes) saw Pettit receive 7044 votes, incumbent (and now former) mayor Susan O’Regan received 5822 votes, and incumbent councillor Clare St Pierre received 3748 votes.
Pettit told the Waikato Times he’s stepping away from a 34-year career in education to lead the district, promising to build relationships, bring rates rises down to the single-digits, and focus on community-led decision-making.
“It’s a pretty special school,” he said. “I’ll definitely miss it.”
He is yet to decide on a deputy mayor but expects to make that decision within the next week.
“I’ve got some people in mind … I’ll be having a talk with a couple of people at least.”
Pettit said he wants to take time before making any major decisions.
“My job is not to go in there and make rash decisions from the get-go. That would be pretty foolish.”
While he did not sign the Taxpayers’ Union pledge to cap rates, he said reducing rates remains a top priority.
“We need to cut our cloth and find different ways of doing things … but I didn’t campaign on things just to get elected,” he said.
“I don’t believe [the pledge] is achievable for Waipā next year, but bringing rates down - yes, that is achievable.”
He said there’d be a lot of change coming with a new water service delivery model, and more pressure on councils from central government, which will “have a huge effect”.
“But where there’s change, there’s opportunity - and that’s just another area where we can look at bringing rates back.”
Another priority for the new mayor is strengthening community engagement.
“The campaign was based on relationships,” Pettit said.
“It’s really about getting out in the community and building connections, but also getting the feedback - the good, the bad, the ugly.
“It’s our job to listen. It’s the community’s job to give us feedback. And then we’re going to make some good decisions.”
Pettit said he plans to address smaller frustrations as well.
“I’m going to go out in the next couple of days to clean a couple of the entry signs into town,” he said.
With special votes still to be counted, some Waipā ward results remain close.
For Cambridge, Jo Davies-Colley and Roger Gordon are clear front runners for two of the four seats on 3906 and 2658 votes respectively.
Aidhean Camson is in third place on 2066 votes, and Pip Kempthorne remains at the table on 1973 votes.
Dave Marinkovich is now in fifth place on 1930, followed by Hope Spooner on 1904.
Incumbent councillors Philip Coles and Lou Brown have not been re-elected.
The Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Ward will be represented by Shane Walsh, Dean Taylor, and Marcus Gower.
Pirongia and Kakepuku Ward councillors are Clare St Pierre and Les Bennett, and the Maungatautari Ward was won by Mike Montgomerie.
Dale-Maree Morgan won the Waipā Māori Ward.
However, Waipā’s Māori Ward will be removed at the 2028 election with 9095 votes against, and 6772 voting to retain it.
Voter return increased from the last election to 41.25%, or 16,991 of registered voters, excluding special votes.
Final results are expected on Thursday, October 16.
The Cambridge Community Board will be made up of Charlotte FitzPatrick, Gerda Venter, Chris Minneé, Stewart Dromgool, and Andrew Myers.
And the Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board will be made up of Ange Holt, Liam Bullen, Jill Taylor, John Wood and Kane Titchener.