The 2019 Tasman District Council election was held on 12 October 2019 as part of the wider 2019 New Zealand local elections to elect members to sub-national councils and boards. One mayor and thirteen district councillors were elected in Tasman District, as well as the members of two community boards.
Mayor
The incumbent mayor, Richard Kempthorne, announced in March 2019 that he would not stand for re-election. Kempthorne had first been elected as a district councillor in the 2001 local election and after serving two terms as a councillor, he had been mayor since winning the 2007 local election.[1][2] Tim King, who had been Tasman's deputy mayor since 2001[1] and had first been elected to Tasman District Council as a councillor in the 1998 local elections,[3] was elected to succeed Kempthorne in the mayoralty. Brent Maru, who was the incumbent chairperson of the Motueka Community Board, came in second place. Dean McNamara came third; this was his third mayoral election. McNamara was re-elected as a Moutere-Waimea ward councillor. Maxwell Clark came fourth in the mayoral contest.[4]
The two incumbents in the Golden Bay ward, Sue Brown and Paul Sangster, were both defeated. Chris Hill and Celia Butler were elected with large majorities. Sangster came third, receiving about half the votes of Hill. Brown came fifth in the contest that had six candidates.[6][5]
In the Motueka ward, three councillors were elected. Preliminary results had Barry Dowler in third place, just 3 votes ahead of Claire Hutt. When the final results were released, Hutt was ahead of Dowler by 24 votes. The result created a gender balance for the first time in the history of Tasman District Council.[7]
During the term, Claire Hutt resigned from the council. She put a notice of her resignation onto her Facebook page on 7 February 2020, stating that "unforeseen personal family circumstances" made her resign.[9] Nominations for the by-election closed on 16 March. Voting documents were sent out on 20 April, with 12 May set as polling day for the by-election.[10] Seven candidates stood for election, with Barry Dowler being successful. Losing candidates were Nick Hughes, Gary Watson, Jennifer Beatson, Tania Corbett, Maxwell Clark, and Elisabeth Siegmund.[11]
Dowler had previously joined Tasman District Council via a by-election in 2017.[12]
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
