Aksel Bech has been elected Mayor of Waikato District with 12,148 votes, well ahead of incumbent Jacqui Church on 6,994 – a result he says reflects a clear public demand for change focused on affordability, housing and giving more power back to communities.
“It’s been a lot of hard work,” he said. “But ultimately it is an honour to get a mandate from the public. People are looking for a change, and the conversations we had around affordability and empowerment of communities as the way forward really have mandated that, and we can get on with it.”
He believes this mandate provides the opportunity – and obligation – to re-examine how the council operates.
Bech has begun meetings with each newly elected councillor to understand their priorities and strengths before settling on new committee structures and a deputy mayor.
“I’m not sure we should just push repeat,” he said. “Some of the reasons councils have not quite delivered in line with community expectations could be committee structures.”
Bech said he is considering a mid-term review model, allowing council to test whether new systems are effective halfway through the three-year term.
“We may not get it right the first time,” he said. “So it’s important to ask halfway through – did we get that right or not?”
The new mayor praised the calibre of those around him and hinted that discussions about deputy and leadership roles are already top of mind.
He said he and Councillor Eugene Patterson had “worked very well together” in the past, and described Whaingaroa Ward Councillor Lisa Thomson as “a great friend… a person of immense integrity and with lots to give.”
Staffing, Structure and Value for Money
Bech said the reshaping of committees and priorities will naturally affect staffing arrangements.
“When we decide what the key priorities are and what structures fit that, there will be staffing implications,” he said. “Some areas have grown quite significantly in the three years I was out of the building. I’m keen to understand what extra value to ratepayers is being delivered.”
He wants to ensure any internal growth translates to tangible benefits for the community – and will not hesitate to “take a hard look” at departments if that value isn’t clear.
Bech hopes to hold a week of one-on-one discussions with councillors before announcing his leadership team.
“We’ll make those announcements later in the month – once we’ve had those conversations and landed on something that makes sense,” he said. “There’s no need to rush to get it wrong.”
A New Working Relationship at the Top
Bech meets formally today with Chief Executive Craig Hobbs, who started a five-year contract earlier this year. The mayor described the CEO–mayor relationship as “crucial.”
“He’s just started on a five-year contract; I’ve just started on a three-year contract,” Bech said. “It’s really important that that relationship is good.”
The new mayor also acknowledged public interest in the CEO’s pay but said the focus should now shift to outcomes.
“The key thing now is to get value for that,” he said. “He needs to deliver value, and that’s all I can do as mayor – work with him to deliver for the district.”
Housing at the Heart of It All
Housing, Bech said, will remain one of the district’s biggest challenges – but also one where Council can play a stronger enabling role.
“One of the things I was really pleased to achieve was to go around all of the councils in the region and encourage them to have a housing strategy,” he said. “Waikato District did adopt a housing strategy. It’s a good one, and it’s got a series of actions that would make a difference. It never got resourced, and as far as I can see nothing ever got delivered on it.”
That strategy, adopted in 2024, identified opportunities for collaboration with iwi, community housing providers and central government. While councils have limited powers to build homes themselves, Bech said they can still make a difference by clearing pathways and supporting land access.
“When you find yourself in a position of vulnerability as an individual or as a family, housing will often be part of that mix of things that are just not right,” he said.
“Where there is surplus land – Crown land, Council land or iwi land – we can look at leasehold models that work well elsewhere,” he said. “We can be more supportive of papakāinga housing. There are lots of options where Council won’t actually be spending money but can be incredibly enabling.”
Bech said that kind of facilitation – connecting partners, streamlining planning and using Council’s influence – could do more to improve affordability than trying to build housing directly.
He described housing as “part of the wellbeing picture” rather than a standalone policy issue, and said his goal is to ensure the district’s strategy “moves from paper to practice.”
Citizens’ Assemblies and Community Boards
Bech also advocated for citizen involvement earlier in decision-making through a new model of “citizens’ assemblies.”
He points to successful examples overseas and in Whanganui, where residents directly helped shape policy options before formal consultation began.
“Normally staff go away, think about twenty different options, boil that down to five or six or seven that go to councillors, and then there’s a formal consultation,” he said. “Actually the community might have been much more interested in the original twenty – or had another five or ten to add because they know local issues best.”
Bech believes Waikato District could pioneer the approach at a local level – especially on complex issues like land use, reserves, or housing development.
He also wants community boards and ward councillors to have more authority over decisions that directly affect their areas, like renewal of community leases as an example.
“At the moment staff do a paper, it goes to the Infrastructure Committee, and Council rubber-stamps it,” he said. “The community board locally with the ward councillor probably know best and could very easily be delegated to make that decision.”
He confirmed he will also introduce public forums at the start of Council meetings.
“It’s just to make Council more accessible and open for anybody to come and raise any issue,” he said.
Rates, Efficiency and Regional Collaboration
Bech said his approach to managing rates will rely on efficiency, collaboration and shared services rather than across-the-board cuts.
“The first concrete thing that I do offer is sharing of services across our neighbouring councils and just gaining efficiency there,” he said. “I’ve talked with Mike at Waipā, I’ve talked with Tim at Hamilton already… Bespoke parochialism – we just can’t afford it.”
He said greater coordination between Waikato, Hamilton and Waipā could reduce duplication and improve service delivery without major structural reform.
At the same time, he believes the 2026 representation review should open up a conversation about what future governance might look like.
“Maybe we look at really starting with a blank piece of paper rather than tweaks,” he said. “Maybe we do a sort of a pre-amalgamation thought around what that looks like.”
Looking Forward
For Bech, the next few weeks will be about laying foundations – meeting councillors, setting priorities, and establishing a collaborative culture.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” he said. “So now it’s about delivering.”
He admits the work ahead is significant but says the direction is clear.
“We’ve got a fresh team, a clear mandate and an opportunity to do things differently,” he said. “Now it’s about getting on with it.”