Neil Kirton was top on 10,599 and last term’s chair Hinewai Ormsby was third on 8436.
Ormsby said it would be up to councillors at the first meeting on October 29 to decide who the chairperson would be.
She congratulated all those re-elected and welcomed the four new councillors joining the team.
“I look forward to the election of chair and deputy for the region,” she said.
Parsons, who in recent years has been national spokeswoman for the Sensible Sentencing Trust, has also been outspoken in her criticism of the way HBRC handled Cyclone Gabrielle.
She says she will be walking into the council on her first day with her shoulders back and her head high.
“I’ve got nothing to worry about,” Parsons said.
“They are the ones who should be hanging their heads,” she said of the re-elected councillors.
“So, they’ve got to make it up to me, not the other way around.”
Parsons said she was in the throes of the Cyclone Gabrielle inquest, and the more she learned, the more she realised she was in the right place as a councillor.
“Things need to change and the first thing is making sure there are systems in place so we are safe in the next disaster. That’s a major.”
In February 2024, HBRC councillors voted 8-3 to change the way it calculated its rates from land value to capital value, despite almost 90% of submitters opposing the change.
Parsons says she wants to find a way to change it back.
Capital value considers the value of both the land and the improvements on a property, such as buildings, rather than the value of the land only.
“That was the most ridiculous decision I’ve ever heard from a regional council. That’s something we could fix for the benefit of so many people who are struggling right now.
“The council has had enough time to see the pain this extra burden is causing ratepayers, so I’m hoping they do the right thing and back me on this.”
She said the third thing she wanted to focus on was the people harshly affected by different land zoning categories, introduced after Cyclone Gabrielle, in a bid to prevent future flood catastrophes.
“It’s just been ridiculous. People can’t get insurance because of the blunders the council made with that system and it needs to be fixed.”
Erosion, especially at Westshore, is also high on her list.
“That’s something I want to get stuck into,” Parsons said.
“This could be the shortest career as a local councillor that you’ll ever see, but I’m literally not going to sit around, because I believe that’s what’s happened in the past.
“I’ll always be respectful, but if there’s something that p****s me off and is wrong, I’ll call it.”
Joining Parsons at the table for the first time will be Tony Kuklinski, Conrad Waitoa and Michelle McIlroy.
HOW A REGIONAL COUNCIL CHAIR IS ELECTED
A prospective chair needs to be nominated by a current councillor.
They need a majority of six or more councillors voting in their favour.
There can be several rounds of voting.
The same process is followed for the deputy chair.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.