Transport Minister Michael Wood has described Tauranga as the "worst-performing overall urban centre across New Zealand" in terms of leadership, decisions and planning in recent decades.
The claim has been rejected by two former mayors, who pointed at the Government's local state highway network as a major weakness for the city.
Wood made the comment during an address at The Tauranga Club on Tuesday.
The event was part of the Kanohi ki Kanohi series, which has sponsors including the Urban Taskforce, Port of Tauranga, Priority One, Mana Taiao and Tauranga Māori Business Association.
Wood told the event Tauranga needed better urban planning and ranked "at the bottom in terms of public transport."
He said he would ensure his agencies invested in high-quality public transport "as we try to progress this city".
Wood praised Tauranga City Council's four commissioners, who were appointed a year ago by Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, replacing the elected council.
Wood said in his view: "Good leaders make decisions. For too long the making of decisions in Tauranga has been lacking. That's a job all of us have in front of us now."
He said the commissioners, who attended the event, were "providing this city with the impetus for getting things done".
"My view is that over recent decades, in terms of overall leadership, the decisions and lack of planning Tauranga has probably been the worst-performing overall urban centre across New Zealand," Wood said.
"It's led to this being a city in which we have a real impact on productivity, in which we have real congestion, in which the vast majority of people across the city have very few choices of how they will move around."
Some others at the event also backed the progress since the commission started, including Nigel Tutt, chief executive of economic development agency Priority One, and Scott Mackenzie, a founding member of the Urban Taskforce, a group founded to represent Tauranga's property industry.
Former Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell, who quit during his term and backed appointing commissioners, told Wood a strong council partnership with the Government was, in his view, "non-existent" when he became mayor in 2019.
He said the relationship was critical as the Government needed to trust and have faith in the council if it was going to provide funding, he said.
Contacted after the event to respond to Wood's comments, Tauranga's two previous mayors rejected any suggestion of a lack of decision-making or planning during their terms.
Stuart Crosby, mayor from 2004 to 2016 and current regional councillor and Local Government NZ president, said his council provided for plenty of growth and development "despite the Global Financial Crisis".
Crosby agreed that a healthy partnership between local and central governments was critical but it was "a two-way relationship, and local councils are subservient to central government rules - that's a bit testy at times".
"The biggest weakness we've consistently found in this city in the last 30 years is the state highway network, [it] has consistently failed to keep up, to the point where we have had to have tolls in this city to provide our own state highway network."
Greg Brownless, mayor from 2016 to 2019, echoed Crosby's concerns about the Government's local state highway network.
Brownless listed several projects that his council decided on including purchasing the land that was developed into Route K (Takitimu Drive), microfiltration of the water system, and starting the Waiari water system.
Brownless acknowledged the relationship with the Government had strained in his time because, "I don't kowtow to people".
"I expect them to fulfil their end of the bargain. I would not let the Government fail to do its job. If that caused strain, so be it, but I would say [the relationship] wasn't broken at all."
Wood also visited the Takitimu North Link (TNL) construction and announced an initiative to provide jobs and training for Ministry of Social Development clients to work on New Zealand Upgrade Programme projects.
In June last year, Wood and Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson pulled funding for stage 2 of the Takitimu North Link (TNL) project, from Te Puna to Ōmokoroa.
Wood said the Government had confirmed $50m towards stage 2.
Asked what reassurance he could give Tauranga residents that funding would not be pulled again, he said: "We do have to manage our books but we are keeping it moving".
On public transport, he told the Bay of Plenty Times that Tauranga was a city that had been "built with no capacity for transport other than driving".
"It's not about everyone taking public transport but more about more people, more of the time.
"Tauranga has more roads and motorways than any other city its size in New Zealand. What it lacks is a high-quality public transport system."
He said there was now a "strong relationship between the central government and local government".
"Until recently, we didn't have that. People can draw a lot of confidence from that."
Bay of Plenty Regional Council Public Transport Committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen said, in his view, the minister's comments about public transport were disappointing and the city had a "very good bus system".
He acknowledged there were challenges but these were being worked on in the newly-formed Joint Public Transport Committee, which is hoped to provide a more collective response to better providing public transport in Tauranga.
'My whole back section’s flooded, it’s coming up to my back door step.'