‘It could get quite messy’: Tauranga prepares to elect new council

Tanya Bamford-King, Mahē Drysdale, Anthony Goddard, Ria Hall, Tim Maltby, Douglas Owens, Tina Sailsbury, John Robson, Greg Brownless are running for mayor of Tauranga in the 2024 local body election.
Tauranga City Council’s election “could get quite messy” with sacked councillors wanting their old jobs back.
Voters will soon take part in their first city council election since 2019. The last council was sacked by the Local Government Minister and replaced with commissioners, whose extended term is about to end.
The election is being held out of sync with national local body elections, which means those who win will stay in power for four years instead of the standard three.
Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post senior journalist Kiri Gillespie told On the Tiles Local Edition the campaign was currently quiet but it could get quite messy.
“People will probably wait a little while before really getting into it and maybe that’s a reflection of experience or lack of, but we do have a lot of fresh faces now so I think the fresh faces are going to offer a lot of opportunity for people. The more familiar faces – that’s where things perhaps get a bit dirty.”
Former councillors John Robson, Heidi Hughes, Larry Baldock, Tina Salisbury and Steve Morris, are all running again. Former mayor Tenby Powell is also standing but as a ward candidate.
Gillespie said there was a common theme as to why these candidates said they were running again.
“From what they’ve told me, it’s very much that they’ve got that local government experience and that’s something that they feel Tauranga needs. The city needs people on council who have the experience of local government and civic procedure.”
Some of the high-profile candidates in the running for the mayoralty include Olympic rowing gold medallist Mahé Drysdale and award-winning Māori singer Ria Hall.
The election will be held on July 20.
Listen to the full episode of the On the Tiles podcast for more from Kiri Gillespie on the big issues for Tauranga in this election.
On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available on Fridays.
The podcast is hosted by Georgina Campbell, a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.