The mayor of Upper Hutt is the head of the municipal government of

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt () is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. History Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongo ...

, New Zealand, and presides over the

Upper Hutt City Council Upper Hutt () is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. History Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongomai and that of the river was Heretaunga ...

. The mayor is directly elected using a

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

system. The Upper Hutt Town Board had seven chairmen, with the role regarded as the predecessor role of mayor. The Upper Hutt Borough Council was proclaimed in 1926, and with that, the role of mayor was introduced. In 1966, Upper Hutt became a city council. The current mayor,

Wayne Guppy Wayne Noel Guppy (born 31 August 1954) is a New Zealand local-body politician. He has been the Mayor of Upper Hutt since 2001. Early life Guppy was born in Upper Hutt on 31 August 1954, the son of Colin Guppy, a police officer, and Joy Gupp ...

, was first elected in 2001 and is the eleventh since the role was created in 1926.

History

Local government in Upper Hutt commenced with the formation of a Roads Board, which was subsequently incorporated into the Hutt County Council when that body was established in 1876. The road board evolved into a dependent county town board within the County Council's jurisdiction. After a change in local government legislation, the Upper Hutt Town Board was proclaimed in 1908. In 1965, Upper Hutt qualified as a city, and this status was officially conferred in the following year, with Upper Hutt becoming a city council. In 1973, the Hutt County Council, Rimutaka, and parts of Heretaunga Ridings were amalgamated with Upper Hutt, which thus became the second largest council by area (after

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council () is the Local government in New Zealand, local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since O ...

). Further amalgamation happened in 1989, when Heretaunga/Pinehaven District Community Council was incorporated into Upper Hutt. The seventh and last chairman of the town board, Angus McCurdy, was elected as the first mayor of the Upper Hutt Borough Council, which was formed in 1926. Peter Robertson was chairman during the years of World War I, and mayor from 1927 to 1931, and again in 1938 until his death in 1939. He died from injuries received in a car crash, colliding with the car of the son of Councillor James Blewman. The resulting by-election was won by Blewman, who beat John Purvis by a majority of 193 votes. Doris Nicholson was mayor from 1971 to 1977. She has been the only woman so far to hold the mayoralty. She was succeeded by Rex Kirton, who was mayor for 24 years until 2001 and by the time of his retirement from the role, he was New Zealand's longest-serving mayor at that time. He was succeeded by one-term councillor

, who was elected with a 6,000 vote majority and who has held the mayoralty since then. Unusual for a city in New Zealand, none of the chairmen or mayors of Upper Hutt has been a Member of Parliament. Until 2004,

First Past the Post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

(FPP) was the electoral system used for New Zealand local elections (with few historic exceptions) including in Upper Hutt. The option of using the

Single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

voting system was introduced in 2004, but Upper Hutt continues to use FPP.

Chairmen and mayors

Upper Hutt Town Board Chairmen

The Upper Hutt Town Board had seven chairmen between 1908 and 1926.

Upper Hutt Borough Council

The Upper Hutt Borough Council had eight mayors between 1926 and 1966.

Upper Hutt City Council

The Upper Hutt City Council has had an additional four mayors since its formation in 1966. The last mayor of the borough council was also the first mayor of the city council.

References

{{Mayors in New Zealand

People from Upper Hutt