Nelson’s chief executive has walked out of Civic House for the last time.
After more than three decades working for Nelson City Council, Pat Dougherty made the decision not to apply for the next five-year contract leading the city’s council.
His final day, on December 16, saw him reflect on more than 30 years working different roles in local government.
Pat says there have been many challenges, changes and things to be proud of during his time at council.
“One of the things I’ve always liked about local government is that you get up each day, come to work and your job is to make life better for the community in one form or another. I think that’s a really cool thing to do. The community doesn’t always agree, but that’s what I’ve liked about it.”
He says the biggest changes have been the transformation of Trafalgar St and the general growth of Nelson.
“When I arrived, there were just over 30,000 people now there’s 55,000, the Nelson Tasman region has gone ahead.”
He says Covid-19 was the biggest challenge.
“But it’s also the thing I’m probably most proud of - how the staff responded to it.”
The city’s response to the August floods is another stand-out moment for Pat.
“For a team that was 10 per cent down in numbers to pick up that work and achieve what they did is just stunning. The contractors, consultants the whole community just rallied. It was the city responding and it’s something that made me very proud.
“We can’t control what nature brings us but the response was just amazing, it really was.
Pat says one of his first jobs when he started with NCC in the 80s was to get the Maitai Dam commissioned and supplying water to Nelson.
“When I first arrived, I was the drainage and water engineer and over the next 14 or 15 years I rose up steadily through the ranks until eventually I was manager of technical services.
“I was sitting in my office thinking ‘I took up engineering because I like to get outside and I like to build things, but I haven’t been outside for months and I haven’t actually built anything myself in a long time, I overview projects but I’m not hands on anymore’, that’s when I thought I might like to be a chief executive.”
Pat says he is not yet retiring but will move into the private sector as a consulting partner with Wellington-based firm Tregaskis Brown. He will remain working from his home in Nelson, commuting to the capital as needed.
He says he’s looking forward to having his weekends back and being able to leave his phone at home.
