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This Week’s Issue

Local Government

Council candidates from Mercury Bay Ward

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August 19, 2025

The six candidates for Councillor fro Mercury Bay Ward have their say.

This coming weekend is the first Meet the Mercury Bay WardCandidates for Council gathering at The Dunes, Matarangi 4:00pm-6:00pm. At the same meeting we will be meeting the candidates for the Mercury Bay Community Board. There will be other meetings; see page 17. Candidiates in alphabetical order.

Tony Brljevich

For almost a decade, Tony Brljevich was a familiar face around the Coromandel Council table. First elected in 2010, he went on to chair the Infrastructure Committee and serve as Deputy Mayor. For 25 years, Tony and his wife Wanda called Coromandel home, raising their family there before moving to Whangapoua in 2019.

Now Tony is stepping forward again – this time to represent the Mercury Bay Ward – because, as he puts it, “The gains we made have been lost.”

He remembers his first term well. The council he joined faced a forecast 21% rates hike. “We turned that around,” he says. “By cutting waste and running things more efficiently, we delivered a 4.5% reduction instead. We reduced borrowing, improved services, and gave Community Boards more say over local decisions.”

The “Community Empowerment” model he helped create, delegated to Community Boards greater decision making power and even invited Community Board Chairs to sit at the Council table with speaking rights. “It worked brilliantly. Communities felt heard, and good ideas came forward.” At the time, only Southland District Council had greater delegations.

These days, Tony worries about the direction things have taken. Rates and debt are climbing fast, bureaucracy has grown, and people feel shut out of the decisions that affect them. “All of this is happening during a cost-of-living crisis. That’s just not acceptable.”

If elected, Tony wants to cap rates, reduce debt, focus on core services, and bring back the transparency and community voice he says have been lost. “We didn’t need new laws to act responsibly back in 2010; we just did it. The same approach can work again.”

With an engineering background and decades of practical experience, Tony believes in getting the basics right. “I don’t want to see hardworking people who’ve paid off their homes forced into reverse mortgages just to cover their rates. We can – and must – do better.”

Email: tb777@xtra.co.nz

Deli Connell

I’ve been your District Councillor in the Mercury Bay Ward for the past three years and am asking for your continued support. I spend time in all corners of the Ward and have friends and contacts in all communities, I know what worries you and what excites you.

My priorities for the next three years are:

To get any future rate increases down to CPI or lower, we’ve suffered costly storms and damaged roads but we’re back on track and it’s time to tighten our belts.

We need to get spatial planning done for the entire district prioritising community input and balancing any future development with liveability. People and the environment thriving side by side should be our focus.

Community Boards have slowly been disempowered, it’s time to restore their ability to make meaningful decisions on behalf of the communities they serve. They should have oversight of projects that impact our Ward.

I have backed Deputy Mayor Walker and Councillor Gotlieb to get the open workshops decision revisited.

I voted against the move to Capital Value rating and strongly supported remaining with Land Value as the fairest mechanism to calculate rates.

We need to do the basics well and this includes getting our new Waters organisation up and running in a cost-effective manner.

Rekha Giri-Percival

I’m Rekha Giri-Percival, and I’m standing again for District Councillor. I’ve previously served two terms on the Mercury Bay Community Board and am currently serving as your District Councillor.

Now more than ever, we need people around the Council table with the skills and experience to lead our community through the financial, environmental, and infrastructure challenges we face.

Also reforms underway in water services, resource management, and local government, the next Council will need to make smart, future-focused decisions. We must maintain essential services, plan wisely, and continue to avoid wasteful spending. My experience in governance and understanding of Council processes prepare me well for this.

I’ll continue to strongly advocate for:

• Community voices at the Council table

• Responsible infrastructure planning

• Financial accountability to protect ratepayers

My husband and I run a residential building business in Whitianga, and our children attend the local school. I understand the challenges that local business, homeowners and families are facing. I also bring corporate experience in construction, engineering, and energy, supported by a Bachelor’s degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business.

Email: rekgiri@hotmail.com

John Grant

I’m John Grant, a passionate Whitianga resident seeking re-election as your Mercury Bay Ward Councillor in the 2025 Thames-Coromandel District Council elections. With three years of dedicated service, I bring business expertise, a focus on fiscal responsibility, and experience to represent our community.

As co-owner with my wife, Lynda, of Coromandel’s CFM radio station (35% audience share, Curia Research) and Managing Partner at Coromandel Insurance Services, I understand local needs. Married for 43 years, we have two children, Annie and James, and four grandchildren.

My council tenure of three years has navigated inflation, severe weather events, and leadership challenges. Serving on committees like Risk and Assurance, Destination Hauraki Coromandel Advisory Group, Chief Executive Committee, Waikato Civil Defence, and Waters Working Group, I’ve built strong relationships to deliver results.

I’ve championed lower rates, reducing a proposed 11.4% increase to 7.7% in the Long-Term Plan, and opposed non-essential spending. Council must prioritise core services: roading, rubbish, and water, which accounts for 50% of rates.

Retain my common-sense approach and experience for an effective council.

Vote John Grant.

021 351 922, jgrant@vcs.co.nz

Flemming Rasmussen

I stand for Council in the Mercury Bay Ward.

I practice law and have proven, successful business and leadership experience.

My vision for Mercury Bay is rooted in our unique environment. We must protect our distinctiveness while fostering controlled, targeted growth. We must enact business- and community-friendly policies to create opportunities for affordable housing development and generate local, well-paid jobs.

I believe in local decisions by locals, for locals.

Status quo – not an option: We have endured three years of +36% unaffordable, unsustainable rate increases, planned debt tripling, quadrupling of interest costs, and a lack of transparency and accountability. If you want more of that, vote for our three incumbent Councillors. They did!

Real change required: Like rust, TCDC’s ever-increasing bureaucracy does not sleep.

I bring a results-focused, no-nonsense approach to governance and leadership, anchored in financial, business and legal acumen.

We face significant challenges. Difficult calls are required. TCDC must be put on a disciplined, fiscally sustainable path.

I stand for: Accountability. Common sense. Back-to-Basics. Transparency.

Vote for: Focused. Results.

Vote: Flemming Rasmussen.

Email: flemming@mountwilliam.co.nz

M: +64(0)21594705

Peter Wood

Democracy is my favourite form of governance and works best if all folk take part in expressing their opinions/decisions. Having choice is part of that and I could represent the increasing demographic with their problems as I was born in 1937.

What I do bring is experience and I have based on service as a Councillor in previous years. I understand its workings and how to give people a voice.

Potable water is going to be an increasing problem with more population and drought from Climate Change. House tanks and dams need to be considered. As do many topics by Community Boards. Councillors must take monthly reports to Council from their Community Boards so we utilise democracy and bring concerns from the ratepayers. Seats based on race will cause dissension and we are leaving tribalism behind.

Our forests and wildlife are under threat from introduced pests, so any remedy should be considered. Do nothing is not an option. We are accountable to our inheritors.

With global warming and extreme weather events, coastal erosion will continue and human coastal retreat is not an option. Having experienced the efficiency of the Buffalo Beach armouring, I believe that this will be the way to go. Our cities have already done this.

Ph 07 868 2262