Post-Election Workshop

MDC Manager Economic, Community and Support Services, Dean has been the Electoral Officer for Marlborough since 1998. MDC was an early adopter of STV voting, becoming one of the seven local authorities which experienced the vote processing problems at the 2004 election.

MDC contracts out the processing of voting papers but, as Electoral Officer, Dean deals with all the issues that can attract public interest during the electoral cycle from the calling of nominations, local campaign complaints and the scrutiny of electoral expenses. Dean suggests patience and a sense of humour are requisites for successful handling of the role of EO.

Elizabeth’s career spans 35 years in the local government sector including Hamilton City, Tauranga City and Waikato Regional councils. She also spent six years as communication and strategy leader for Local Government New Zealand. Her qualifications include a degree in resource management and a post- graduate diploma in communication.

She is passionate about local democracy and engagement with local communities.

For the past 10 years Elizabeth has run her own business working with elected members and council managers as a facilitator and consultant advisor around strategic change, communication and engagement and crisis management. She is also a columnist for the LG News magazine - providing fresh insights and/or practical advice on local government issues.

Warwick has worked in local government for 32 years, firstly as Administration Manager at Papakura District in 1986 and Central Hawkes Bay DC, then as Returning Officer for electionz.com since 2000.

Warwick is Electoral Officer for 19 councils and 6 DHBs, and numerous public and private sector organisations. Warwick and his team carry out approx 200 elections in NZ each year, most of which use online voting.

Warwick has considerable experience in candidate management and electioneering/campaigning practices, particularly the use of social media by candidates.

Dale Ofsoske is Managing Director of Election Services, providing electoral services, including assistance with democratic reviews, to a large number of local authorities.

He is an experienced electoral officer (since 1985), foundation member and deputy chair to the former Taituarā Electoral Working Party, current member of the Taituarā Electoral Sub-Committee and honorary Taituarā member. Dale is electoral officer for a number of councils, including Auckland Council, and brings his expertise and widespread knowledge on electoral matters to this forum.

Seán oversees the development, maintenance and dissemination of the knowledge base and the delivery of leadership development across the sector.

Seán is a passionate advocate and believer in the role of local government and the benefits it can bring to our daily lives and wellbeing. He has worked for several local authorities in a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Seán holds a BA Hons in Government, is a qualified accountant with postgraduate qualifications in management and communications, and was a Resource Management Commissioner Chair. Seán completed a Masters in Public Policy, researching 'How New Zealand’s Directly Elected Mayors get things done' – a shortened version of which was published in Policy Quarterly and more recently contributed a chapter to a book on the 2022 local elections.

Outside of work, Seán spends time being second favourite parent to his two dogs, running, reading, and playing squash (all very badly).

Peter has worked in the local elections space since 2001. He currently leads the team at Datam responsible for ensuring the Votext website performs well during the critical document formatting and proofing stage of the election process. Peter's team also links into voter pack production, a complex process involving the printing of over 3,000,000 packs and over 1,000 different voting document combinations.

Away from elections, Peter is involved in Datam's digital communications platform, ensuring organisations can utilize multiple channels to effectively engage with their customers. This capability has played a pivotal role in supporting essential communications for Datam's government and corporate customers during the challenging times of Covid.

Dean has been at NZ Post since 2012 and involved with the local election project since 2018 working on his first election champaign in 2019.

At NZ Post he is part of a team of 8 specialists connecting and forging partnerships with customers to manage their mail solutions.

In the 2022 elections, Dean will be working closely with Datam to deliver the local body voting packs and with NZ Posts Business Mail Specialists, who will coordinate the day-to-day activities and messaging within NZ Post, and manage internal processes for outgoing and returning voting papers.

Amanda Shaw is a Principal Policy Analyst in the Local Government Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. She has been working on local electoral policy at DIA for the last four years. Prior to that she has worked on policy and operational matters at a number of government departments including in the Constitutional and Electoral Team at the Ministry of Justice.

James Baty is a Wairoa native and proud to be from ‘Space Coast New Zealand’ home to the world’s only privately-operated space launch site, based on the magnificent Māhia Peninsula. He is currently the Corporate Services Manager and Electoral Officer at Wairoa District Council where he has conducted a number of elections, by-elections, representation reviews and polls. Educated at Victoria University of Wellington, James previously worked at the Ministry of Economic Development (now the MBIE) as an Intellectual Property Advisor.

Mali has a 10 plus year career local government, governance. In her current role she leads two teams, Democracy Services and Tai-ranga-whenua with a focus on all processes related to democracy, supporting council’s co-management arrangements with local iwi and leading policy and strategy work aimed at growing capacity to engage with Māori. Co-governance at Waikato Regional Council has been in effect for almost 10 years now. The introduction of Waikato River treaty settlement legislation was the catalyst for forging long term partnerships with iwi in the Waikato. And with more treaty settlements on the horizon the drivers for change will continue to emerge from this space.

Michael is the Manager –Governance and Legal at Invercargill City Council since November 2021 and the Deputy Electoral Officer since 2018. Michael led the elections team during the 2019 Elections as well as two recent by-elections. He joined Council in 2014 as in house Counsel having spent 9 years working in private practice in both Invercargill and Queenstown with experience in local Government law, Resource Management as well as Family Court and Crown prosecutions.

Jennifer Parker is the Manager of Governance and Democracy Services & Deputy Electoral Officer at Wellington City Council, moving to this role in August 2019 after an earlier position leading the Council’s City Partnerships team. Jennifer has a background in strategy, communications and mediation with management experience in central government, business and the not-for profit sector. She describes the 2022 inauguration ceremony as a career highlight – the culmination of a successful election, the development of the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori Ward, the appointment of two mana whenua representatives and the first WCC inauguration to be held on marae.

Rowan Burns has worked in the policy function at the Department of Internal Affairs for ten years, including a secondment as Private Secretary to the Minister of Local Government, and stints working on both fire and water policy. He is currently a policy manager in the Department’s Local Government Branch, with responsibility for local electoral policy.