John Robson eyes city's top job

Tauranga City councillor John Robson is eyeing up the position of Tauranga City Council Mayor, in the hopes fourth time is a charm. PHOTO/GEORGE NOVAK

Tauranga City councillor John Robson is eyeing up the position of Tauranga City Council Mayor, with the hope that the fourth time is a charm.

The retired management consultant, who spent $112 on his last campaign, wants to get the Tauranga City Council back on track.

"It gets its priorities wrong... Like spending money on a brand refresh, I don't remember any community clamour for a brand refresh," he said.

"And the rates increase didn't need to be there, in my view. The civic heart project is an embarrassment to date. It's poorly led, and it needs real change."

"Overall I would give the council a D, collectively."

He said the role of a council was to deliver infrastructure and regulatory systems and to set objectives and assemble resources.

He said he was standing for mayor because, in his view, he was the only one with proper corporate experience.

Despite running for Mayor in the 2007, 2010 and 2013 local body elections, he decided not to do anything "particularly different" from his earlier campaigns, but was confident constituents would vote for him.

"I think there is increasingly an awareness of the need for change. I think I've slowly developed a wider network of people, my vote this time will be larger than last time."

He would be running for a position as councillor at large again, if he did not seize the role of Mayor.

"I don't need the job, I retired last century, I want a better Tauranga," he said.

"We need to change, we need people with board level experience," he said.

Running on the slogan 'Real Change in TCC - Guaranteed', his goals were to access the budget, create team-work within the councillors, and to create better council engagement within the community.

"The budget needs a comprehensive review. Spend needs to be prioritised in accordance with communities' wishes."

"I want to get the councillors working effectively as a team, get the council listening to the community, and do what we're supposed to do according to the Local Government Act and [have been] failing to do in Tauranga for years."

Mr Robson said he wanted to get the council "successfully managing a growing city", which he thought could be done "once we have a budget, a plan, a team working together, and conversations with the community".