Unelected commissioners recommend they stay in power in Tauranga
Thursday, 18 April 2024
Crown appointed commissioners say they need to stay on beyond Tauranga elections in July.
Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal their request to the Government that one of them “chair” the city, rather than have a mayor.
A former city mayor said the move was “unethical” and an “insult” to Tauranga residents.
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has rejected the recommendation, and says Tauranga will return to a fully elected council in July.
Tauranga’s Government-appointed commissioners have recommended they stay on with no mayor elected in July, though the minister has rejected the bid.
A letter from the city’s leaders to Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, released under the Official Information Act, said there were “risks” and “serious concern” if the elections went ahead as planned.
“A return to a fully-elected, new and inexperienced council could result in dysfunctionality similar to that experienced prior to the Commission’s appointment,” wrote the commissioners in the letter, dated December 2023.
Instead of an elected mayor, appointing one of the commissioners as chair “would assist in achieving the objectives the National-led Government has enunciated through its policy statements and coalition agreements,” said the commissioners.
But the effort to remain in power in Tauranga was rejected by Brown, who said democratic council elections and representation would return after the July 20 election.
“The people of Tauranga have been clear that they want to see a return to a fully elected and democratically accountable council. I am pleased to confirm that this will happen at the upcoming election in July,” Brown said.
“I want to confirm to the people of Tauranga, and the Commission, that there will be no hybrid model of governance following the July election,” Brown said.
“Nor will there be Crown observers. Tauranga will return to being a full democracy.”
Brown said the elected members would have a four year term until 2028 when Tauranga’s elections would realign with other local government across the country.
Tauranga’s four commissioners, chaired by former National MP Anne Tolley, have been running the city since 2021, when they were appointed to replace a dysfunctional administration led by then mayor, Tenby Powell.
The commissioners had recommended to Brown that their continued involvement in leading the city would assist the National Government, and that they had already started work on a a plan “in response to the National Party manifesto”.
“A Council governance structure with the required expertise will be critical to ensuring successful delivery of any future agreements between central and local government,” their letter said.
A “hybrid model” of the four elected commissioners, plus five elected councillors, led by a commissioner rather than an elected mayor, was also recommended by a report - also sent to Brown in December.
The report, by consultancy Martin Jenkins, and commissioned by the council, concluded that “a sudden transition to a fully-elected Council poses significant risks”.
“Such a move could jeopardise the hard-earned momentum in advancing critical infrastructural projects initiated to address historical underinvestment. Furthermore, a sudden transition to a fully-elected Council could undermine the confidence of strategic partners, investors and stakeholders.”
Former Tauranga mayor Greg Brownless said the commissioners’ move was “unethical” and “an insult”, and that they had “gone behind the backs” of the people of Tauranga.
“We hear so much about democracy being under attack around the world and it is truly disturbing to know that the Commission has once again worked against democracy in Tauranga.”
Commission chair, Anne Tolley has been paid $1800 per day and her fellow commissioners $1500 per day since taking over from former Mayor Tenby Powell’s council in 2021, Brownless said.
Tauranga residents have continued to face challenges of gridlocked traffic, a struggling CBD, and soaring rates.
“People aren’t stupid, no amount of words from the Commission will convince people not to believe what they can see with their own eyes,” Brownless said.