"There's a bumpy ride ahead, there is political turmoil coming."
These are perhaps not the words you would want to hear from the mayor of a city that is recovering from one of the biggest political scandals in recent years. But Joanne Anderson, who took over in the wake of that scandal, is not one to mince her words.
Mayor Anderson was an unlikely figure to step in to the breach left by her similarly-named predecessor after he was arrested as part of a corruption investigation that engulfed Liverpool Council and sparked a government inspection that lifted the lid on years of failings and problems.
Joe Anderson, who ran the city for ten years before he stepped down after his arrest in December 2020. He has not been charged and denies wrongdoing.
READ MORE: Hundreds oppose green bin charge in petition
After a chaotic Labour selection process, which saw other longer-serving councillors removed from shortlists, Joanne Anderson - a backbench member for just two years - stepped forward to win power and begin what she knew would be a long and arduous recovery journey for this city and its council.
It is just over a year since former Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick rose in Parliament to detail the devastating findings of the Caller Report, thrusting Liverpool into the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons - and landing the city with the ignominious prospect of having Tory government-appointed commissioners arrive to oversee how the council operates.
It was this backdrop that Joanne Anderson thrust herself into as she secured the Labour nomination and took the highest political office in the city last May. A year on from Caller and approaching the anniversary of her record-making election as the first black woman to lead a UK city, she is sanguine when talking about the positive steps taken since that dark moment.
She told the ECHO: "I think we're always impatient about the improvements we need and how quickly we can do them, but obviously its a big organisation that delivers a lot. I think we have achieved an awful lot in the past year.
"Things have moved at a bit of a slower place in terms of bedding in the relationship with the commissioners, but there have been some big moments like the boundary review, people put an awful lot of work into that and took a lot of time. We have to work in a different way and we've had a lot on our plate, The strategic improvement plan, the council plan and then the budget, they are all massive milestones and not to be sneezed at."
She added: "In terms of improvements, we are in the nuts and bolts now, we have laid out what we need to do and now it is about prioritising. It's important that we do this right and do it well, we can't try to do everything at once."
That slower pace the mayor mentions has led to criticism in some quarters, with suggestions from some in the city's business community that potential investors are losing interest in Liverpool because of the speed it takes for decisions to be made and finalised.
It's not a criticism the mayor agrees with. She adds: "I think its quite damaging for people from the city to put a message out that's not true about investors.
"We've got investors very keen to get involved with us. We were at the MIPIM property conference recently talking to a lot of investors who of course want to get a return on their investments but also want to make a positive impact on communities. This fits really well with the policy framework we have put in place."
She accepts that the combination of the commissioners and the improvement journey of the council has slowed things down, but says this is necessary as the council looks to work in a better way. She said: "I think we were always consulting previously but didn't necessarily take on board the responses. I think Lime Street is a good example of where we have taken that on board and acted on it.
"We could stick sticking plasters over problems and have the same problems 2 or 3 years down the line, as a cabinet we don't just want to set up problems for future cabinets, we want to put things in place like our social value policy, which will fundamentally change how we do things as a council."
There is no doubt that this Mayor Anderson has a very different approach to the very vocal and often combative one that came before her, but she rejects the idea that she hides in the background.
She said: "I'm not really prepared to change much and that might be a problem for some people. I'm not prepared to grandstand. There has been suggestions that I'm sort of in the background and not vocal but I think I am everywhere, I have the opposite opinion. But I won't speak for the sake of it, I'm not prepared to do that. I haven't changed as a person."
Speaking about the strains of a job she never imagined she would do, she added: "Of course its stressful at times, but it is how you react to stress. For me, I'm here for a purpose and that is about how we improve as a council and get things right. It can be difficult not having much in terms of time off, working long hours and then out campaigning with Labour - but I wouldn't have put myself forward if I couldn't handle it."
One of the biggest challenges to the mayor's authority did not come from the government commissioners overseeing key departments in the council she runs, but from within her own Labour group. In February, seven Liverpool Labour councillors broke the whip to vote against the budget plan laid out by Mayor Anderson and her cabinet.
The rebel group said they were not prepared to vote for cuts and may yet form a new political group on the council. Reflecting on that moment, the mayor said: "There were people there who had voted for budgets with cuts in them year after year, so I'm not sure what made it different this year.
"Councillors know when they join the Labour Party they will have to vote for a balanced budget, its all in the rules and they are all aware of the consequences. Some of the things they (the rebels) were talking about just weren't true. They did what they wanted to do for their own reasons, I doubt they were all about the budget."
The Labour leader said she was 'proud' of the budget setting process, which saw a further £25m of savings made in areas like adult social care and other departments. Perhaps the most controversial and high profile policy within the budget was a move to charge £40 a year for green waste collections. It's a move that has been met with fierce criticism, not just from opposition parties or those Labour rebels - but from residents across the city.
Mayor Anderson said: "We wouldn't have brought in a green bin charge if we didn't have to. There are lots of councils that do this, it is a strategic decision that is needed. We wouldn't put this charge on people if we didn't have to and we have put in place support for people who can't afford it.
"Obviously no one wants to bring in a charge for something people previously didn't pay for, but when it comes to that or closing down support funding or leisure centres, this was the choice we had to do. We had to make massive savings and cuts in the least painful way possible."
Another criticism of the mayor and her administration is the decision not to hold a referendum on the future governance model for the city. This was something both the ruling Labour group and Mayor Anderson had pledged to do prior to last year's elections.
But with the Caller Report leading to major changes in Liverpool's electoral cycle - meaning there will be no council elections this year an an all out vote next May - the administration said it could not justify what would be a one-off referendum cost of £500,000, opting instead for a city-wide consultation that it says will cost around a fifth of that sum.
But some remain angry, having missed out on a vote when the mayoral system was brought in back in 2012, that they once again will not be able to cast their ballot on how their city will be run. Despite publicly calling for a referendum in the past, the now Mayor says she does not regret the decision and would do the same again if the circumstances were the same.
She said: "I couldn't justify half a million quid. I don't think I would have won either way, if we had paid that out for a referendum there would have been criticism around finances. I think we were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"I've got no regrets really, we have to make the best of the situation we had. Given my time again I still couldn't have justified half a million quid outside the electoral process."
The electoral changes that led to the decision not to hold a public vote on the mayoralty will see every single councillor in the city up for election next year. It's a move that the government and inspector Max Caller claim will bring more stability to the city's politics, but the mayor - who had her own term cut by a year because of the changes - doesn't see it that way and is predicting chaos.
She said: "The provocation that's been put in place by the Caller Report and then the Secretary of State, they have meant to put a bomb under how the Labour group operates, all out elections, everyone out together, that political turmoil is coming anyway, regardless of the governance model.
"That's been purposeful, it didn't make sense to me at first why my term was cut by a year, why they would not let us see through the improvement journey, but I think probably the understanding behind that is to go beyond one person's leadership to see what will happen in the longer term and whether the improvement journey can remain.
"There is a bumpy ride ahead, regardless of the governance model, because of the recommendations in the Caller Report. It's political, its happening to more and more councils. Its a worrying trend from a party who are in no position to be pointing the fingers."
But how much of a role will the current mayoral incumbent want to play in that bumpy ride? If the consultation, as many expect, leads to the removal of the mayoralty and a return to the leader and cabinet model, she would have to apply to become a councillor once again if she wanted to be involved in a leadership challenge - or involved with the council at all - at next year's elections.
Her future political plans are something she has consistently been tight lipped about and that remains the case, for now at least.
Mayor Anderson added: "There is a deadline for when I need to put my name down as a panel member to be a councillor for next year's elections, I'll make that decision when the time comes. I'm probably clear in my own mind, I'm just not prepared to share it yet."
