Refresher: Tauranga City Council's deputy mayor turmoil, as it happened

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

Ructions inside Tauranga City Council have again hit the headlines, with the release of a cache of texts and emails sent by elected and senior officials during an attempted coup for the deputy mayoralty earlier this year.

Here's a refresher on the public events of that tumultuous time.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly where the issues that led to the coup started, but a significant precipitating public event was a May 19 meeting incident that prompted a walkout.

Baldock moved a motion to cut short a debate on Elizabeth St streetscaping, Clout seconded it, and Powell accepted it without a vote, in what the council later said was a procedural error.

In protest, councillor John Robson refused to vote and councillors Steve Morris, Andrew Hollis and Dawn Kiddie walked out of the video conference meeting. Clout apologised for his seconding the motion.

Those five, and councillor Bill Grainger, signed a letter of requisition seeking a meeting to remove Baldock from the deputy mayor position and replace him with a choice elected by the council. They also sought change around pay and leadership roles for councillors.

The coup attempt became public after a Tauranga City Council meeting on June 2.

In that meeting, mayor Tenby Powell announced Larry Baldock was resigning as deputy mayor and would be replaced by first-term councillor Tina Salisbury.

The six then filed a second letter of requisition attempting to depose Salisbury for the same reasons.

Outside of chambers, a war of words raged, with elected officials on both sides trading blows.

But the second requisition letter too fell over on June 11 when councillor Kelvin Clout withdrew his name from the letter, and the majority was lost.

The last of the issues raised in the requisition letters were settled in a meeting on June 16 - leadership appointments and a flatter pay structure for councillors.