The mayor of Porirua is the head of the municipal government of

Porirua Porirua, () a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Poriru ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and presides over the

Porirua City Council The Porirua City Council is the territorial authority for the city of Porirua, New Zealand. The council is made up of a mayor elected at-large and 10 councillors elected from two general wards (Onepoto General Ward and Pāuatahanui General War ...

. The mayor is directly elected using the single transferable vote electoral system. There have been six mayors since the establishment of the borough council in 1962: the current mayor is

Anita Baker Anita Denise Baker (born January 26, 1958) is an American jazz and soul singer. She is known for her soulful ballads, particularly from the height of the quiet storm period in the 1980s. Starting her career in the late 1970s with the funk ban ...

, who was elected in October 2019.

History

The locality was part the Makara County Council, abolished on 31 August 1962. The rural area became part of Hutt County, the urban area becoming Porirua Borough Council. Elections were held in October 1962, and Whitford Brown was elected the first mayor of Porirua. During Brown's term, Porirua achieved city status on 2 October 1965. At the time, this required having a population of at least 20,000. In the first triennium the mayor received honorarium for their duties of £750 per annum. At the first council meeting following the 1965 elections councillors voted to keep the honorarium at the same amount after the council was upgraded from a borough to a city. Brown retired from the mayoralty in 1983. He was succeeded by John Burke, who had been Deputy Mayor since 1977. Burke remained mayor for 15 years (five terms) until 1998.

Jenny Brash Jennifer Sylvia Brash (born December 1946) is a former New Zealand local government politician. In a career spanning nearly 40 years, she was mayor of Porirua from 1998 to 2010 having previously served as a Porirua city councillor. After retiri ...

was first elected mayor in 1998, succeeding Burke. She held the mayoralty for 12 years (four terms) until her retirement in October 2010. She was a Northern Ward councillor in 1983–89 and 1995–98.

Nick Leggett Nicholas Oliver Leggett (born 1979) is a former New Zealand politician and, as of 2016, a member of the New Zealand National Party. He was Mayor of Porirua from 2010 until 2016, and at the time of his election in October 2010, he was the young ...

was elected mayor on 9 October 2010, defeating Deputy Mayor Litea Ah Hoi. He had been endorsed by his predecessor plus former mayor John Burke, and was first elected as a councillor in Porirua in 1998, when he was 19 years old. Aged 31 on his election to mayor, he was at the time the youngest mayor in New Zealand. In October 2016, Leggett was succeeded by

Mike Tana Michael Darren Tana (born ) is a New Zealand politician and trade union leader. He was mayor of Porirua from 2016 to 2019. Early life Tana is from Matakohe, near Ruawai in the Northland region. His iwi are Ngāti Whātua and Ngāpuhi. He has ...

History

List of mayors of Porirua

List of deputy mayors of Porirua

References