Russell Mathew Rimmington (born 29 December 1945), commonly known as Russ Rimmington, was the 30th

Mayor of Hamilton, New Zealand The mayor of Hamilton is the head of the municipal government of Hamilton, New Zealand, and presides over the Hamilton City Council. The incumbent is Paula Southgate, who was first elected in the 2019 local government elections. History Hamil ...

. Rimmington was born on 29 December 1945 in

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

, New Zealand. In the

2003 New Year Honours The 2003 New Year's Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British monarch's honours system, where 1 January is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of ot ...

, he was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

for public services. Following the 2019 local elections, he was elected chair of the

Waikato Regional Council Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, t ...

. In May 2022 he was removed as chair by the council and replaced with Barry Quayle, due to racist comments he had made regarding the

Three Waters reform programme The Water Services Reform Programme (formerly known as Three Waters) is a public infrastructure restructuring programme launched by the Sixth Labour Government to centralise the management of water supply and sanitation in New Zealand. It orig ...

in October 2021.

References

1945 births Living people Mayors of Hamilton, New Zealand People from Oamaru Companions of the Queen's Service Order New Zealand justices of the peace Waikato regional councillors {{NewZealand-mayor-stub