He said he loved the job of Far North Mayor, but he was looking forward to moving into other areas after the local elections in 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, for me, three terms of service on the Far North District Council <\/a>\u2013 one as a councillor and two as mayor \u2013 will be enough for me to have given to the people of the Far North<\/a>,\u201d he said after the meeting.<\/p>\n Tepania chose a new councillor, Kaikohe East School principal Chicky Rudkin, as his deputy mayor.<\/p>\n But in a surprise move, he backed returning four-term councillor Felicity Foy for the next mayoralty at the ceremony.<\/p>\n He said Foy would have been his additional choice if he could have had two deputy mayors.<\/p>\n He backed Foy for the mayoralty, should she choose to accept that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf she made a decision to run for mayor, I would endorse her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Foy said later she had no idea he was going to make this announcement.<\/p>\n But, subject to talking to her family, she was interested in standing for the top job.<\/p>\n Foy said she was humbled by Tepania\u2019s comments backing her.<\/p>\n Tepania said that indicating this position at the ceremony had been a \u201csoft prompt forward\u201d, and he wanted to give others notice of his intention.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a huge decision for someone to make to stand for mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n His response was lukewarm when asked later whether he would pursue a Government MP\u2019s role after 2028.<\/p>\n He said that was not his goal in the short term, but it might be something he considered in the longer term.<\/p>\n In the shorter term, he wanted to work toward a Doctor of Education, further developing his work on the use of maramataka or the M\u0101ori lunar calendar in education.<\/p>\n He also wanted to spend more time with wh\u0101nau and family, including more time working on the ground with his marae \u2013 M\u0101tihetihe Marae in Mitimiti, remote North Hokianga and Waihapa Marae in Whangaroa.<\/p>\n Tepania swore in new councillors Rudkin, Arohanui Allen, Rachel Baucke, Ann Court, Foy, Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, Davina Smolders and John Vujcich.<\/p>\n R\u0101kena was not at the ceremony because he was in China.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the council\u2019s 19 politicians across three community boards were sworn in on Friday.<\/p>\n Tepania bestowed his new deputy mayor with the title Te Kohepu o te Hiku o Te Ika \u2013 the flower of the kohekohe tree.<\/p>\n He said the name acknowledged Chicky Rudkin\u2019s deep roots in Kaikohe, where she was born and grew up with close ties to Hokianga and Whangaroa.<\/p>\n The kohekohe flower, with its sweet smell, has a strong connection to Ng\u0101puhi. The mid-north town\u2019s Kaikohe name originates from the native tree.<\/p>\n Rudkin was the FNDC Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board\u2019s chairwoman for the last council term.<\/p>\n Tepania said she would be retiring from her role as principal at the end of the year.<\/p>\n Rudkin told the about 100 students present she was proof that local people could achieve, even if they had not gone to university.<\/p>\n They would have the opportunity to one day be standing where she and the councillors at the ceremony were.<\/p>\n Tepania said a youth council would be returning to FNDC next year.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a unique father-son combination will be among FNDC community board members.<\/p>\n Kait\u0101ia\u2019s Mike Te Wake is Te Hiku Community Board\u2019s Kait\u0101ia representative.<\/p>\n His father, Panguru\u2019s Doug Te Wake, is the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board\u2019s North Hokianga representative.<\/p>\n \u25a0 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI am looking forward to giving my all for the people of the Far North and setting up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19330,7558,7797,528,78,440,10934,43770,111,43,139,1536,529,69,10903,56639,11925,40249,57918,1533,14443],"class_list":["post-113149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-19330","tag-councils","tag-elections","tag-far","tag-in","tag-local","tag-mayor","tag-moko","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-popular","tag-reelection","tag-seek","tag-seeking","tag-tepania","tag-will","tag-wont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kaikohe’s Mutunga Rameka challenges incoming mayor Moko Tepania (in light brown suit) and his council with a wero at the start of the powhiri. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n
FNDC councillor Felicity Foy (right) was backed for the mayoralty from 2028 by Moko Tepania at the swearing-in ceremony. She is with the new Te Hiku General Ward councillor, Rachel Baucke.<\/p>\n
FNDC Nga Tai o Tokerau Maori Ward councillors (from left) Arohanui Allen, Deputy Mayor Chicky Rudkin and Hilda Halkyard-Harawira. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n
New Far North Deputy Mayor and Kaikohe East School principal Chicky Rudkin chats with her pupils ahead of the powhiri. Photo \/ Susan Botting<\/p>\n