Mayor of Tauranga

The mayor of Tauranga is the head of local government in Tauranga, New Zealand's fifth largest city. The mayor presides over the Tauranga City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method. There is currently no mayor. The previous mayor was Tenby Powell, who resigned in November 2020.

On 9 February 2021, a Crown Commission appointed by the Minister of Local Government took over all of the council's governance responsibilities, including the vacant position of Mayor. A mayor will be elected at the upcoming 2024 election.

History[edit]

Tauranga was gazetted as a borough in 1882, and achieved sufficient population to become a city in 1963. The 1989 Local Body reforms saw the city become part of the Tauranga District, before the City of Tauranga was reproclaimed in 2004.

Elections for mayor were held annually from 1882 up to 1915, when terms become two years. In 1935 terms were made three years, the current system. The election used first-past-the-post voting up until the 2016 election,^[2] then changed to single transferable vote.^[3]

One of Tauranga's longest-serving mayors was Canon Charles Jordan, who was mayor for nine years in total over five separate periods. He is the subject of a commemorative statue, unveiled in Tauranga Domain in 1916, four years after his death.^[4]

The last mayor, Tenby Powell, was elected to the office in October 2019 but resigned in November 2020^[5], eight months after he was unanimously censured by his council for an angry outburst.^[6][7] Following further mayoral "outbursts,"^[8][9] Powell publicly called for the Minister of Local Government to appoint a commission to replace the "dysfunctional" council.^[10][11] The decision to cancel the election for a new mayor and councillors, and the appointment of a crown commission instead by Nanaia Mahuta was not without controversy. A legal opinion by law firm Russell McVeagh found her decision may have been "unlawful"^[12] and Tauranga MP Simon Bridges called the decision "dramatic and draconian",^[13] while saying that Powell quitting removed "a significant source of friction" and it was reasonable to assume the council would become more functional with the election of a new Mayor and Councillor.^[14]

List of mayors[edit]

Tauranga Borough Council (1882–1963)

	Mayor		Term
1		George Vesey Stewart	1882[15]
2		Richard Coles Jordan	1882–1883
3		Thomas Wrigley	1883–1885[16]
4		Charles Jordan	1885–1886[17]
5		David Lundon	1886–1888[17][18]
6		James Bodell	1888–1889[19][20]
7		Robert Sharpe Galbraith	1889–1890[21][22]
(5)		David Lundon	1890–1893[23][24]
8		Richard John Gill	1893[25]
9		Charles Angus Clarke	1893–1898[26][27][28][29]
10		Gerard Arnold Ward	1898–1899[30]
11		James Weir Gray	1899–1900[31]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1900–1905[32]
12		William McKenzie Commons	1906–1907[33]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1907–1908[34]
13		John Bull	1908–1909[35][36]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1909–1910[36]
(13)		John Bull	1910–1911[37]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1911–1912
14		Benjamin Robbins	1912–1915[38][39]
15		Charles Macmillan	1915–1917[40]
16		John Cuthbert Adams	1917–1919[41]
17		Bradshaw Dive	1919–1929[42]
(14)		Benjamin Robbins	1929–1933[39]
18		Alfred Francis Daly Tunks	1933–1935
19		Lionel Wilkinson	1935–1950
20		Bill Barnard	1950–1952[43]
(19)		Lionel Wilkinson	1952–1956
21		David Mitchell	1956–1963

Tauranga City Council (2003–present)

	Mayor		Term
(27)		Jan Beange	2003–2004[45][46]
28		Stuart Crosby	2004–2016[46]
29		Greg Brownless	2016–2019[47]
30		Tenby Powell	2019–2020[48][10]
–	Vacant - commissioner		2020–present

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mayors of Tauranga.

• Mayors of Tauranga, 1882– Tauranga City Council
• History of Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty