A recent poll has shown less than a third of people surveyed think Tauranga City commissioners are doing a good job.

Tauranga Ratepayers' Alliance commissioned the poll that asked 'How good a job do you think the Commission running Tauranga City Council has done over the past two years since it was appointed?”

It asked people to rank the performance from very poor to very good.

The results show 27 per cent thought it was good or very good, 32 per cent said it was average, 34 per cent said it was poor or very poor and 6 per cent were unsure.

The poll was conducted by Curia Market Research on April 23 and 24 and asked 400 adults in Tauranga questions about the commissioners, and the decision to appoint them and extend their term.

The commission was appointed to Tauranga City Council in February 2021 by the previous Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta, to replace a 'dysfunctional council”.

In March 2022, Mahuta extended the commission's term to July 2024 when an election would take place.

The poll asked if people supported or opposed the decision to appoint the commission, with 55 per cent in support of the decision and 34 per cent opposed, 11 per cent were unsure.

It also asked: 'In March 2022, the Minister of Local Government cancelled the scheduled elections for Tauranga City Council and extended the terms of the commissioners for a further two years. Did you support or oppose this decision?”

Of the 400 respondents, 35 per cent were in support and 56 per cent were opposed.

Another question asked: 'Would you support or oppose ending their [the commissioners] term early and holding an election for a new mayor and councillors on the same day as the parliamentary general election in October?”

The response showed 67 percent were in support of an election in October and 26 per cent were opposed, with 6 per cent unsure.

Tauranga Ratepayers' Alliance spokesperson Sam Hill says the results show over time people's opinion of whether there should be a commission in place had gone from being 'slightly positive to quite strongly negative”.

'You can see from those polling numbers that people have gradually lost confidence, and they would like to have their say now,” says Hill.

'It just shows that people want to have an election as soon as possible.”

Commission chair Anne Tolley said the commission was "well aware" that many residents would prefer to have elected governance. Photo: John Borren/SunLive.

Asked her thoughts on the poll, commission chair Anne Tolley says: 'Without knowing more about the way poll panel participants are selected, or self-selected, it's impossible to make a judgment about the fairness of the poll findings.

'Having said that, essentially this shows that around 60 per cent of the people polled are either happy, or at least not unhappy, with our performance, while around one-third thought the commission hasn't performed well.

'I suspect that a similar poll relating to previous elected councils would have had a far lower approval rating,” she says.

'The commission is well aware that many residents would prefer to have elected governance, but the fact is that didn't work out well last time and we've been put here to do the job of addressing issues that elected councils had put in the too-hard basket for too many years.”

Tolley says some of those issues, like the housing shortfall and traffic congestion are 'intractable”.

'It does take a long time to ‘turn the ship around', but the feedback we're getting is that there is confidence we're heading in the right direction.”

In terms of the commission's tenure, that is a matter for the Government to consider, says Tolley.

Asked if he would consider holding an election for Tauranga in October, local government minister Kieran McAnulty says he has no plans to alter the current role or tenure of the commission.

Local government minister Kieran McAnulty ​​​​​​. Photo: RNZ.​

'The purpose of appointing the commissioners remains to put Tauranga in a stronger position for the future and return the city to full local democracy as soon as possible.

'The former Minister of Local Government made the decision to appoint a commission in Tauranga as the Tauranga City Council faced several issues that it was unable to resolve on its own.

'The decision to appoint the commission until July 2024 was made following careful consideration of the commission's exit plan, feedback from businesses and community leaders, and the need to ensure that the council and the Tauranga community have certainty in the funding and delivery of services and infrastructure,” says McAnulty.

There is no deadline to organise a local election for Tauranga because there will be no local elections until the end of the commission's appointment in July 2024, he said.

McAnulty did not respond directly to a question about his thoughts on the commission's performance.

The poll surveyed 260 people via phone and 140 via an online panel. The results were weighted to reflect the overall adult population of Tauranga in terms of gender and age.

Based on the sample of 400 respondents the maximum sampling error (for a result of 50 per cent) was +/- 4.9 per cent, at the 95 per cent confidence level.

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