In July, Tauranga will choose who will be running their city for the first time in five years.

A mayor and nine councillors will replace the four-person commission that has been in place since February 2021.

To keep people informed ahead of the election on July 20, Local Democracy Reporting asked the 15 mayoral candidates their thoughts on four topics.

Before voting opens on June 29 readers will hear from each of the mayoral candidates.

Tim Maltby is a retired engineer who lives in Pāpāmoa Beach.

The 67-year-old is a widower with two adult children.

He says his relevant experience to local government is his engineering career because most of what the council does is engineering.

Maltby is running for mayor and standing in the Pāpāmoa ward.

Tauranga is the least affordable city in New Zealand because of an infrastructure and housing deficit. How would you address this?

"We need better priorities for council spending. To fund development, we need to increase the contributions from developers.

"High and medium density housing might help with affordable entry level housing if it is done right. We need to control council spending and avoid massive debt and rates increases.

"Council needs to be restructured to make it more efficient and cost effective."

What would you do to keep young adults in Tauranga and attract others to the city?

"Both of my children have left Tauranga, a big part of that is jobs and training.

"A bigger, better university would help. More apprenticeships etc would help. It is good for our young people to go out and explore the world, but we would like them to come back. More quality jobs would help.

"Tauranga has a problem of already attracting more people than we can cope with, so I don't think we need to worry about attracting more people."

Tauranga will have its first Māori Ward this election. The Government plans to require councils to hold a binding referendum on Māori wards established after March 2021. This means the Te Awanui Māori ward could only be in place for one term. Given the change in Government policy, is it important for Tauranga to keep this ward?

"In principle I am opposed to having separate groups in the electorate for any reason. We are all Tauranga residents. Creating separate wards encourages self-interest policies and can be divisive.

"The big test, does it improve the way the city functions for everyone, not just one particular group."

Hypothetically, if Tauranga won the lotto and there was no budget, what big ticket item would you want for the city? Excluding infrastructure, like roads and water services and housing.

"If the Bay of Plenty regional council decided to sell some of their shares in the Port of Tauranga, I would buy the available shares for Tauranga city. Otherwise, I would pay down Tauranga’s debt."

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