Tauranga City Council is having its first election since 2019 after four years under a commission's governance. Here's a brief history of what happened. Video / Alex Cairns
A candidate running in the Tauranga election is already serving as a councillor in another district.
Sarah-Jane Bourne is a councillor for the Matamata-Piako District Council where she represents the Te Aroha ward. She is also standing in the Tauranga City Council elections this year as a candidate for the Arataki ward.
If successful, Bourne could serve both councils for about three months before resigning from her existing role in the Matamata-Piako district.
Bourne said if elected she intended to resign from Matamata-Piako District Council after being sworn in at Tauranga “but the timing is such that it won’t trigger a byelection”.
“This is something I was conscious of and sought advice on before putting my name forward for this decision.”
Bourne said she had the full support of her mayor and fellow councillors.
Bourne lived in her own home in the Western Bay of Plenty. While she had also lived in other areas of Tauranga, she felt she had the greatest connection to Arataki, where she had her first job at the local superette, she said.
“I grew up in this area for over 20 years - living on Grenada St and Pacific View Rd, have gone to school and worked there ... and have friends and family who still reside there and in other areas of our city - many of whom encouraged me to stand in this election,” she said.
Bourne anticipated “there may be a few weeks overlap” between elected members being sworn in and October 11, the earliest date she could resign from Matamata-Piako council without triggering a byelection.
The next local body elections for all New Zealand councils except Tauranga will be on October 11, 2025. If Bourne, or anyone else, resigned from their councillor role before October 11, 2024, it would prompt a byelection to ensure their council had full representation of its constituents. However, legislation allows a council to operate on fewer numbers if the resignation happens within a year of elections being held.
Sarah-Jane Bourne is already a councillor for Matamata-Piako but is running in Tauranga's election.
Bourne said she was confident she could juggle both roles if needed.
“I am a hardworking and organised person, and it is likely that issues around scheduling clashes or conflicts of interest would be minimal, if any, and quite easily managed per the advice I sought and received before I put my nomination in.”
If Bourne was unsuccessful, she would continue as she was now, “residing in the Bay and travelling to Matamata-Piako for meetings and events, continuing to still be available for my community as I am now”, she said.
Kiwi Olympian Mahē Drysdale is running for mayor of Tauranga in the 2024 local body election, saying he plans to commute from Cambridge for the first few months. Photo / Alex Cairns
Bourne’s plans come as mayoral contender Mahē Drysdale said that if successful, he intended to commute from his home in Cambridge for the first six months.
Drysdale and his family are based in Cambridge but he grew up in Tauranga and said he still had close ties to the city. If he was successful, he expected to commute, staying with his Mount Maunganui-based mother at times, before he and his family considered potentially moving at the end of the year.
Pāpāmoa resident Barry Scott questioned Bourne’s decision to contest the Tauranga elections while being an elected member for another council.
Tauranga City Council chief electoral officer Warwick Lampp. Photo / Bevan Conley
He believed Bourne, if successful, should resign from Matamata-Piako council but noted this would trigger a byelection for that district. Avoiding this by resigning after October 11 would mean she was carrying out duties for both councils for about three months.
In response, Bourne said: “I am excited by the possibility of serving the community I grew up in and [will bring] strong and current local government experience to the role, which for obvious reasons will be lacking in the new Tauranga City Council.”
Matamata-Piako mayor Adrienne Wilcock said she and her councillors wished Bourne well and “would be sorry to lose her”.
Wilcock said she was aware Bourne had moved to the Western Bay and that “circumstances change for people”.
Asked what concerns she had with Bourne potentially serving both councils at the same time, Wilcock said the council would “cross that bridge when we come to it”.
Chief electoral officer for Tauranga City Council Warwick Lampp said there were no rules to prevent anyone from outside of the city from running for its election.
There was also nothing to stop anyone already serving on a council from serving on another.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
