Mayor of Tauranga
Coat of arms of Tauranga
Incumbent Mahé Drysdale[1] since 2 August 2024
Style	His/Her Worship
Seat	Tauranga
Term length	3 years, renewable[a]
Formation	1882
First holder	George Vesey Stewart
Deputy	Jen Scoular[2]
Salary	$172,918[3]
Website	Official website

Themayor of Tauranga is the head of local government inTauranga, New Zealand's fifth-largest city. The mayor presides over theTauranga City Council. The mayor is directly elected using thesingle transferable vote method. The current mayor isMahé Drysdale, elected in the2024 Tauranga local elections. He assumed office on 2 August.^[4]

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 usedfirst-past-the-post voting up until the 2016 election,^[5] then changed tosingle transferable vote.^[6]

One of Tauranga's longest-serving mayors was CanonCharles 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.^[7]

Tenby Powell was elected to the mayoralty in October 2019 but resigned in November 2020,^[8] eight months after he was unanimously censured by his council for an angry outburst.^[9][10] Following further mayoral "outbursts,"^[11][12] Powell publicly called for theMinister of Local Government to appoint a commission to replace the "dysfunctional" council.^[13][14] The decision to cancel the election for a new mayor and councillors, and the appointment ofa Crown commission instead by ministerNanaia Mahuta on 9 February 2021 was not without controversy. A legal opinion by law firmRussell McVeagh found her decision may have been "unlawful"^[15] and Tauranga MPSimon Bridges called the decision "dramatic and draconian",^[16] 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.^[17]

The council and mayor were restored followingelections in 2024.Mahé Drysdale was elected as mayor.

Tauranga Borough Council (1882–1963)

	Mayor		Term
1		George Vesey Stewart	1882[18]
2		Richard Coles Jordan	1882–1883
3		Thomas Wrigley	1883–1885[19]
4		Charles Jordan	1885–1886[20]
5		David Lundon	1886–1888[20][21]
6		James Bodell	1888–1889[22][23]
7		Robert Sharpe Galbraith	1889–1890[24][25]
(5)		David Lundon	1890–1893[26][27]
8		Richard John Gill	1893[28]
9		Charles Angus Clarke	1893–1898[29][30][31][32]
10		Gerard Arnold Ward	1898–1899[33]
11		James Weir Gray	1899–1900[34]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1900–1905[35]
12		William McKenzie Commons	1906–1907[36]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1907–1908[37]
13		John Bull	1908–1909[38][39]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1909–1910[39]
(13)		John Bull	1910–1911[40]
(4)		Charles Jordan	1911–1912
14		Benjamin Robbins	1912–1915[41][42]
15		Charles Macmillan	1915–1917[43]
16		John Cuthbert Adams	1917–1919[44]
17		Bradshaw Dive	1919–1929[45]
(14)		Benjamin Robbins	1929–1933[42]
18		Alfred Francis Daly Tunks	1933–1935
19		Lionel Wilkinson	1935–1950
20		Bill Barnard	1950–1952[46]
(19)		Lionel Wilkinson	1952–1956
21		David Mitchell	1956–1963

Tauranga City Council (2003–present)

	Mayor		Term
(27)		Jan Beange	2003–2004[48][49]
28		Stuart Crosby	2004–2016[49]
29		Greg Brownless	2016–2019[50]
30		Tenby Powell	2019–2020[51][13]
–	Replaced by Crown commission		2020–2024
31		Mahé Drysdale	2024–

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMayors of Tauranga.

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

• Lists of mayors of places in New Zealand
• Tauranga
• Politics of the Bay of Plenty Region
• Mayors of Tauranga

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