Tauranga’s former mayor Tenby Powell might run in this year’s election but he’s waiting to see who he could be working alongside.

On July 20, the city will elect a mayor and nine councillors ending the commission's term.

The first-time mayor told local Democracy Reporting he ran in the 2019 election “to break a stranglehold on a city that was 20 years behind in infrastructure, roading and civic amenity and ... housing".

After serving for a year, Powell resigned in November 2020 following his stage four prostate cancer diagnosis and called for a commission to be appointed.

Even before he resigned, there had been reports of in-fighting at the troubled council and name calling over text messages.

In August that year the council decided to appoint a Review and Observer Team to try to resolve the issue of elected member relationships.

More turbulence followed, resulting in the councillors being deposed by former Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta. 

Mahuta appointed a four-person commission, which took over in February 2021, due to the "infighting, poor behaviour” and not setting "realistic” rates.

Powell says he asked for the commission.

"So I feel a huge responsibility now to ensure that I play a part going forward, potentially.”

Tenby Powell at the Tauranga City Council swearing in ceremony in 2019. Photo: Daniel Hines/SunLive.

The commission's progression needed to continue so he was waiting to see who the candidates were before deciding to run, he says.

“To stop the progress now would be an absolute travesty.

He says there are councillors who are running who would stop that progress.

“If I was to run this time, it would be to be a part of a team that will continue doing the work that the commissioners have started.”

Powell says he is also awaiting the results of a blood test to help inform his decision because he was still fighting cancer and wanted to ensure he could serve a full term.

“Health first because without that I can't be any good to anyone really.”

When asked how he would handle being elected alongside members of the previous council, Tenby replied:

“If you want to vote for the guys that have held the city back, who have not had the courage to make the decisions that the commissioners have made, do not vote for me.”

Powell says he would back Tina Salisbury, Heidi Hughes and Larry Baldock, who were members of the 2019 council and were running in this year’s election.

The election was being hailed by some as a return to democracy, he says

Tenby Powell in Izyum, Ukraine in 2022 as part of the aid work he started through his charity Kiwi K.A.R.E. Photo: Tenby Powell.

“The reality is that the wishes of the majority of Tauranga residents over two decades have been trampled on by councillors," he says.

“This is not a return to democracy at all in the sense that I believe the commissioners have been very democratic in their process.”

After resigning, Powell took a year off to recover from cancer. 

The former army colonel says he couldn't “sit back and do nothing” when war broke out in Ukraine. 

He started Kiwi K.A.R.E, a volunteer organisation delivering humanitarian aid and medical treatment to Ukrainians impacted by the war.

Powell has spent around 14 months in the country since Russia invaded. 

He says he feels a “huge sense of responsibility” to the operation running in Ukraine as well.

“I've just got lots of decisions to make really, but I'm very vested... in Tauranga city.”

Nominations for the election close at midday on May 24.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.