First-term councillor to acting mayor in just over a year: Tina Salisbury's rapid rise

Tauranga deputy mayor Tina Salisbury at home in Welcome Bay. Photo / George Novak

Deputy mayor Tina Salisbury will become the acting mayor of Tauranga from November 20, when mayor Tenby Powell goes on medical leave to receive treatment for prostate cancer. For Salisbury, the new challenge is the continuation of a rapid ascent up the political ladder, going from a first-term councillor to the city's acting mayor in just over a year. So who is Tina Salisbury? This interview is from June, when she took up the deputy spot.

Tina Salisbury found out only a couple of days before the rest of Tauranga that she would be catapulted into the deputy mayor's chair.

But with a resume that includes owning a business, a stint selling high-rise real estate in Miami and being the pastor of a church in Tauranga, it was not the first time she had been thrown into something new.

Salisbury, 53, joined the council in November in a crop of six first-time elected members, including mayor Tenby Powell.

When she was approached to run for council she was working with vulnerable people in the community, most of them young and going through tough times.

"My initial response was, 'no', I loved what I was doing," she said. But she came to see it as "an extension of serving the community from a different place".

Te Papa-Welcome Bay ward councillors Tina Salisbury and Bill Grainger. Photo / File

She was elected with a strong mandate from her Te Papa-Welcome Bay ward, having been the top-polling candidate despite challenging two long-serving councillors.

She had hoped to continue as a pastor of Journey Vineyard Church but that work had largely fallen to husband Mark as she found herself working 12-hour days to learn the council ropes.

The first eight months had been "bumpy", with inauguration protests, the Whakaari eruption and a string of gun incidents.

A controversial and short-lived bid to hike rates by 12.6 per cent, which Salisbury backed, was interrupted by Covid-19.

The first meeting of the new Tauranga City Council in November. Photo / File

All the while, ructions between council leadership and some councillors were simmering in the background, occasionally spilling over into the public domain.

Salisbury said she stayed out of the interpersonal fray and tried to get on with everyone.

Her rapid ascent up the political ladder, however, came during an ugly political dust-up as six councillors attempted have her predecessor Larry Baldock replaced with a deputy mayor elected by the council.

"It was a shock," Salisbury said of the moment Powell asked her to take the deputy role.

"I didn't expect to be in this position, and certainly not partway through my first year on council."

She had a couple of days to think and talk over the offer with her husband and their two adult daughters before Baldock's resignation and her appointment were announced in a bombshell June 2 public meeting.

The six councillors challenged her appointment but this move fell over when Kelvin Clout backed out on Friday and the majority was lost.

Tensions appeared somewhat eased in a meeting on Tuesday.

Salisbury said it was not the circumstances anyone would want to start a role with, but she hoped the council could now move on.

Doling out sausages on New Year's Eve. Photo / File

"My hope is, now we'll have the opportunity to actually bring our strengths and do the job. And I think we can do that ... even though we've had a pretty rough start."

She received many messages of congratulations on her promotion but said it felt "difficult to celebrate" in the circumstances.

She took one person with a negative view out to coffee and said that was good and something she would like to do with other concerned constituents, rather than reading "nasty comments" on Facebook.

Salisbury planned to use her new position to champion community engagement in collaboration with her colleagues.

"So understanding just the different views out there in the community, but also finding ways to empower people to participate in the decisions that we need to make."

Her lack of council experience was a blessing and a curse; an opportunity to apply a fresh perspective and a steep learning curve.

"Even though I don't come with the local government experience, I will work hard to learn as much as I can and do the best job that I can."