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Tauranga City Council Mayor Tenby Powell resigned on November 20 and asked the Local Government Minister to intervene in the dysfunctional council.
The mayor of Tauranga, Tenby Powell, has resigned and has publicly asked the Minister of Local Government to appoint a commissioner to replace the dysfunctional council.
Powell tendered his resignation on November 20 after an extraordinary meeting in which the need for the council to appoint a Crown Administrator who passed 5-5 with Powell using his casting vote was discussed.
However, Powell says this does not go far enough and that only by appointing a commissioner can he solve the problems facing the city.
S tuff He understands that on November 18, Powell contacted Minister Nanaia Mahuta to inform her of his pending resignation and personally request that a commissioner be appointed, but did not inform the council not to interrupt the debate.
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He is not the first victim of the triennium with the resignation of councilman Jako Abrie in October and also publicly calling for a commissioner to replace the embattled council.
The extreme measure would effectively remove elected members and can only be undertaken if the minister believes there is a major problem.
Powell said Tauranga is in dire straits with a $ 2 billion shortfall in capital projects that must be overcome in the long-term plan. Since taking office, he has used the analogy of Tauranga kicking a “can of debt” for years. He is not confident that the council can deliver a long-term plan that is tailored to the needs of the city, and therefore he resigned.
Powell decided to resign on November 17 when the review and observation team presented to the council only to be delayed by a procedural motion. The report team was commissioned by CEO Marty Grenfel after a series of child insults, annotations and a series of complaints about the code of conduct plagued councilors.
Dominico Zapata / Things
Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell said there is a fundamental theme within the council’s DNA.
The report highlighted that councilors had little understanding of their role in governance, had a historical inability and unwillingness to make decisions, and did not demonstrate self-awareness for their part in the dysfunctional environment and their problems lay in the legacy of historical decisions made.
In response, some councilors referred to possible grammatical errors in the report, questioned lexical options, advocated for a glossary to determine what “dysfunction” meant, disagreed with the findings as errors of fact, and finally six voted in favor of a procedural motion to delay discussion of the report for an additional four days.
“I felt like watching that meeting in third person, I was stunned,” Powell said.
“They are not aware of themselves and could not see what was right in front of them. The world has seen that these councilors, particularly a core group of them, do not have the capacity to govern a city of this complexity. ”
In a prepared speech for councilors, Powell said he has never escaped a challenge but believes nothing will change without ministerial intervention. He also said that his decision to resign was not related to his recent prostate cancer diagnosis.
“Until last Tuesday’s meeting, I had every intention of returning to my position of serving the city for the remainder of the current term. However, I have come to the conclusion that this can only serve to perpetuate the status quo. “
Powell says there is a fundamental theme within the council’s DNA.
In recent years there have been a lot of failed projects, budget losses and delayed decisions. High-profile mistakes in recent years include the $ 14.2 million purchase from the Bella Vista Homes debacle to the $ 19 million Harrington Street parking lot that had to be abandoned.
“I think people will remember this day 10 or 20 years from now and say that this is where the change was made,” Powell said.
“I really believe that history will show that in November 2020, when the DNA of incompetence was recognized and seared, and, after a period of the crown, a government team with real leaders can be rebuilt,” he said.
“It is my sincere hope that my resignation will facilitate the government intervention which I believe is necessary for the future good of Tauranga Moana.”
More to come.
