Seven years ago, Richard Briggs was appointed chief executive of Hamilton City Council.
He had two years as council CFO under his belt when Barry Harris – “one of the best chief executives in the country for local government” – stepped down in 2014.
Briggs wasn’t so keen on working for an unknown quantity, so he threw his hat in the ring and got the job. The announcement didn’t quite go as he had expected.
Mayor Julie Hardaker called him into her office to give him the good news and then called a meeting to tell senior leadership. “She told them and they thought she was joking. ‘Oh yeah, who’s the other one? Who is it going to be?’ And I was just sitting there thinking, none of these guys believe it.”
It’s the kind of story Briggs is happy to tell about himself. He is, as he deadpanned to Linda Topp when she singled him out from the crowd at this year’s Bucket List Banquet, the chief entertainment officer of Hamilton City Council. For once, the effervescent Topp, who clearly didn’t know him, seemed bemused.
Apparently, that’s a term bestowed on him by his staff, rather than a self-description, but anyone who has seen him in action will testify that he can appear to veer alarmingly off script. During interviews, he talks at warp speed, sometimes in multiple directions at once.
With that comes a candour that is unusual among bureaucrats, but it is allied to an astuteness which has seen him win the confidence of successive councillors and mayors.
Not that it has been all plain sailing. His worst moment in the job came less than a year after his appointment.
Hamilton zoo keeper Sam Kudeweh was fatally mauled by a Sumatran tiger on September 20, 2015.
“That was really hard. There was huge national and international pressure, a staff member who was loved had passed away. I knew her through engagement as a staff member previously. You know – national pressure, family was hurting, the zoo community was hurting, the media onslaught…”
He describes it as an “absolute low”. “It was a stressful time and some staff are still impacted by that.”
Briggs’ concern for staff shone through again when Covid hit, and he was quick to put the focus on employees’ wellbeing.
“The team did an amazing job during Covid. We probably stood up our [leadership] team quicker than anyone in the country because of our high performance programme, and high trust.” He says the elected members were also quick to respond. “That was quite a proud moment.”
The high performance programme is about connecting people with their community, he says. “Our purpose is to improve the wellbeing of Hamiltonians. It is really simple.”
He says they have partnered with a third partner in the programme which wraps together strategy, culture, leadership and mindset in performance management.
“I’ve religiously driven it into the organisation for the last few years and it’s bred results. I reckon we’ve gone from being anonymous as a council from a central government perspective, to now one where we are recognised by the right people for doing the right things, and we’re getting a fair cut of the coin for doing so.”
That’s not necessarily readily quantifiable, but from Briggs’ point of view, the key is that they are credible and push hard, and he cites the government’s HIF (Housing Infrastructure Fund) investment in Peacocke. “We were recognised at that stage as being progressive, influential, we got the biggest chunk of change.”
It seems possible the livewire Briggs is both uplifting and exhausting as a boss. He is certainly sure of himself and his approach.
“I’ve got a mindset of being driven, strategic and relentless. The relentless part is I never walk past an opportunity to enable someone to be the best version of themselves. So I’ve got this theory whereby I do everything I can, for someone to be the best they can be, recognised for being the best they can be on a national stage or whatever, to the extent that they become entirely marketable outside the council, but I create an environment where they enjoy the job so much they never want to leave. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
With councils facing reform of three waters, the replacement of the RMA and a review of the local body structure itself, Briggs wants to see the city get “front and centre”. When it comes to three waters, he says they are working with a consortium of local authorities and are ahead of central Government in some aspects. He has his team looking at whether there is a bigger opportunity for shared services with other councils, and even nationally on procurement and innovation.
“We try to influence the best outcome. That might well be a Waikato-Bay of Plenty solution,” he says. “The other aspect that I’ve pushed with central Government myself is to what extent can we think nationally on some of these things. And if you’ve got a national body, you can start having a conversation about where you place infrastructure that’s boundaryless.”
That comes with ensuring the community voice is still heard. “And we’ve done a lot of that, in terms of the engagement model, really getting engaged with our community.”
An inventive campaign to boost the vote lifted the turnout slightly at the last city elections. Since then, the council has also fielded a record 5674 submissions to its long-term plan. As well as the numbers, Briggs is equally pleased to see the diversity of people attending hearings and submitting, which included video submissions.
“Definitely the engagement space has been great,” he says.
“The challenge is to find ways to work with the community. I’m working on a proposal right now to think about how we can really leverage flexible working.
“What I want to do is go to the market and say, hey, look, I’ve got no sacred cows, what I want to do is make sure that I’ve got a really safe and productive environment for my team – what does it look like? So rather than going to the market, and asking for, you know, a building to be built, or this building to be re-kitted or the status quo, I’m going to put the problem statement.
“And I’m not taking a bricks and mortar approach. I don’t have any particular view whether we should own this building or not.”
But come October it will be time for Briggs, a chartered accountant, to find a new role. Council rules mean they must advertise his position this year, and that’s an opportune time to step down, he says. “I could have done a year or two more, I think I’ve got more things I want to achieve. But I don’t think it’s fair [on council] to have that sort of an interruption.”
Aged 47, he is seeking fresh challenges, with a return to the commercial sector likely as well as playing a part in the community sector – definitely in Hamilton, the “cool city” he is passionate about. “Getting back in the commercial world, in some form or another, would be quite enjoyable.”
He has loved the chief executive role, though. “I love seeing change in the community and knowing my guys are doing such a great job.”
He has also enjoyed working with elected members, saying he takes a forthright approach with them. “One of my ‘superpowers’ is I can, for the most part, understand what their intent is. And so that has probably given me the ability to be quite resilient when they can be a little bit hot-headed at times as they’re driving a really passionate point.
“It’s just good fun. You know, we’ve got 27, 28 business units, really complex, it is really interesting. It’s really exciting work we do and most people come here because they really want to make a difference.”
Sometimes it’s the little things, like a staff member who gave a bike to a homeless man whose bike had broken down. Or watching a City Safe worker helping an old gent across the road into his car. Or the dog control woman who drove to Napier in her own time to return a lost dog to its owners.
“Those stories are cool, you know, we’re talking about improving the well being of Hamiltonians, there’s individuals making a difference.”
