\u201cHe was a hugely influential figure in local politics and a pioneer as mayor of Manukau City Council for 24 years. He was the country\u2019s longest-serving mayor at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was known for his booming trademark voice and was a genuine champion of the communities he served over a 40-year career in local government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council post said Curtis was a dedicated public servant who devoted nearly 40 years of his life to serving the people of Manukau and Auckland.<\/p>\n
Councillor Alf Filipaina said Curtis was a dear friend and colleague.<\/p>\n
\u201cSir Barry championed an approach dubbed the \u2018Manukau Way,\u2019<\/a> which balanced economic progress with community welfare and fostered inclusive partnerships, particularly with iwi through early engagement on issues like the Manukau Harbour claim and Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom my perspective, part of his legacy will be about uniting diverse communities and ensuring that Manukau plays a significant contribution to Auckland\u2019s economic, social, and cultural advancement.\u201d<\/p>\n Having entered local government in 2003, Filipaina recalled one of his earliest lessons as a new councillor, telling RNZ he learned quickly to be well versed on the details of council meeting agenda items and unbudgeted funding requests under Curtis\u2019 watch.<\/p>\n This was after he voted for one of his colleague\u2019s recommendations at his first ever council meeting, only to be pulled up by the mayor afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt sorry for the councillor because I knew he wasn\u2019t going to get the recommendation through, so I sided with him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe finished the meeting and [Sir Barry] walked past me without losing a stride and he goes: \u2018Never ever vote for something that will increase the rates\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, oops. It felt like I got told off by the principal.\u201d<\/p>\n Filipaina and a colleague had lunch with Curtis as recently as Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cHis mind was very sharp. He was still giving us advice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just have a lot of respect for him, a lot of love for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Curtis was backed by the right-leaning Residents and Ratepayers Association in his mayoral tenure, but was known for working well with the dominant Labour group on the council.<\/p>\n When he retired, he said he was proud of his working-class background, Auckland Council said.<\/p>\n \u201cI came from a poor family and my father was a waterside worker. That is why I know how it feels to be born on the wrong side of the tracks. I never forget that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Curtis consistently identified health, housing, education and lack of jobs as Manukau\u2019s main problems, and called on the Government to take a more interventionist approach.<\/p>\n He was knighted in 1992 for his services to local government and the community.<\/p>\n Manukau City was one of four cities in the Auckland region before they merged with the Auckland Regional Council and three district councils to become what was known as the super city in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe was a hugely influential figure in local politics and a pioneer as mayor of Manukau City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[38886,18919,184,2199,16082,6179,2740,6871,42,57533,10934,43,8485,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-357339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-38886","tag-aged","tag-barry","tag-city","tag-curtis","tag-died","tag-former","tag-has","tag-headlines","tag-manukau","tag-mayor","tag-news","tag-sir","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357339","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=357339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}