Tauranga City Council Commissioners have recommended to Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta that local government elections in the city be delayed by a year.

The four-person Commission, chaired by Anne Tolley, have also suggested a Crown Manager should then oversee Council after elections until 2025.

The recommendations come in the most recent report from Commissioners to the Minister, submitted on December 31 last year and released to the public last month.

The Commission was appointed by Minister Mahuta, coming into effect in February 2021, to address what she called 'significant governance problems” among the elected representatives for Tauranga.

The Commission's term was due to end with October's elections but the Commission's recommendation is that this should not happen.

In the report, the Commissioners suggest community engagement has seen concerns raised that a return to elected officials could again see 'dysfunctional governance” impacting Council effectiveness.

'We have assessed the perceived risk of that scenario to Council's work programme (as defined through the 2021-31 LTP), activities and capability and we believe the risks involved can best be managed by delaying the city's local government elections by one year (until October 2023) and appointing a Crown Manager to oversee Council governance through until the next scheduled local government elections in 2025,” reads the report.

This approach, according to the Commissioners, would 'allow the significant work programmes required to address the city's growth issues and infrastructure and community facility deficits, and the funding and financing arrangements required to support them, to be further progressed”.

The final decision will rest with Mahuta however several organisations around the city are opposed to the Commission staying on.

Sustainable Bay of Plenty executive director Glen Crowther penned a letter to Minister Mahuta last week expressing his desire for elections to return.

'The community has now lost its voice and the city has lost any sustainability guidance that it once had, with only a small group of influencers included in council decision-making processes,” he says.

'Councillors expressing different viewpoints should never result in the removal of the democratic process. In fact, such a situation is the very time to implement the most robust democratic processes.

'There are times when a council needs to lead by making decisive decisions that some residents may not like. However, the fundamental principle of any representative democracy is that elected politicians are there to represent the views of their constituents.”

Several members of Tauranga's business community have expressed a desire for the Commission to remain for at least one more year. Former Mayor Tenby Powell told SunLive he was of the same opinion last month.

However, Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby told SunLive last month that he also supports a return to elections this year.

"While the Commissioners do consult the Tauranga community, it is very clear that they're operating under a terms of reference set down by the Minister of Local Government which can conflict with long term and sustainable community development," said Crosby.