New Plymouth District Council has confirmed a six-monthly rotation for the Deputy Mayor position across three councillors – Murray Chong, Moira George and Gordon Brown, with only one person holding the statutory role at any time.
The move follows community feedback and independent legal advice sought by Mayor Max Brough, who acknowledged early talk of concurrent co-deputies created confusion and went further than intended. “Apologies are offered for the confusion caused by such an innovative approach,” the Mayor said in the statement.
Under the schedule, Cr Chong serves first from 5 November 2025 to 30 April 2026, followed by Cr George and Cr Brown. Each handover will be formally recorded so there is never ambiguity over who holds the legal authority of Deputy Mayor at any point.
The committee structure for the term has been made under mayoral powers in section 41A of the Local Government Act 2002, which empowers the Mayor to appoint a Deputy Mayor, establish committees and name chairs.
The Act does not prevent changing the Deputy Mayor during the triennium, provided each appointment is properly made and minuted. The council’s position is that a time-bound roster is lawful so long as there is one Deputy Mayor at a time and each succession is clear and transparent.
The mayor has confirmed four standing committees, a vast reduction compared to last term.
Te Huinga Taumatua will continue with two co-chairs – Cr Gordon Brown alongside an iwi co-chair to be named once five iwi representatives are confirmed.
Cr Murray Chong will chair the newly created Public Engagement Committee with Cr John Woodward as deputy.
Cr Moira George will lead the Going for Growth Committee along with Cr David Bublitz as deputy.
Finance, Audit and Risk will be chaired by an independent external appointee yet to be recruited, with Cr Graham Chard as deputy.
During their six-month stints as Deputy Mayor, Crs Chong, George and Brown will keep their standing chair roles, meaning the leadership roster is layered on top of committee responsibilities rather than replacing them.
A wider set of appointments to joint and external bodies is also signalled, including the Civil Defence Emergency Management Committee, the TRC Regional Transport Committee and a proposed Waste Services Joint Committee that would supersede the Taranaki Solid Waste Working Party.
The council will confirm those external appointments at its 18 December meeting.
On pay, the council will debate the remuneration structure in December. The Remuneration Authority sets the Mayor’s salary directly and sets a total “governance remuneration pool” for councillors.
Councils then allocate that pool to roles such as committee chairs and deputies, subject to the Authority’s confirmation and gazettal.
NPDC notes there is no intention to add extra pay purely for time spent as Deputy Mayor on top of the standing committee chair rates, but the final structure will be decided by council and must align with the Authority’s rules.
The rotation model is framed as a practical way to share workload and grow capability, while keeping a single line of authority. Supporters argue it gives the district three senior voices working harder over the term, and better coverage across communities, without creating any confusion as to who can chair, sign or stand in for the Mayor at any moment.
Deputy Mayor Appointments
| Deputy Mayor | Period |
| Murray Chong | 5 November 2025 – 30 April 2026 |
| Moira George | 1 May 2026 – 31 October 2026 |
| Gordon Brown | 1 November 2026 – 30 April 2027 |
| Murray Chong | 1 May 2027 – 31 October 2027 |
| Moira George | 1 November 2027 – 30 April 2028 |
| Gordon Brown | 1 May 2028 – 14 October 2028 |
Committee Appointments
Te Huinga Taumatua
Standing Committee
- Gordon Brown (Co-Chairperson)
- Max Brough
- Gina Blackburn
- Te Waka McLeod
- Dinnie Moeahu
- 5X iwi representatives to be confirmed
- (1 Co-Chairperson to be determined)
Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
Standing Committee
- Chairperson (external)
- Graham Chard (Deputy Chairperson)
- Max Brough
- EJ Barrett
- David Bublitz
- Moira George
- Dinnie Moeahu
- John Woodward
- One lawyer (to be recruited)
- One accountant (to be recruited)
Public Engagement Committee
Standing Committee
- Murray Chong (Chairperson)
- John Woodward (Deputy Chairperson)
- Max Brough
- EJ Barrett
- Graham Chard
- Christine Fabish
- Damon Fox
- Kerry Vosseler
Going for Growth Committee
Standing Committee
- Moira George (Chairperson)
- David Bublitz (Deputy Chairperson)
- Max Brough
- Gina Blackburn
- Murray Chong
- Damon Fox
- Te Waka McLeod
- Kerry Vosseler
- (external members to be appointed at a later date)
Stadium Taranaki Joint Committee
(previously Yarrow Stadium Joint Committee)
- Gordon Brown
- John Woodward
Civil Defence Emergency Management Committee
- Max Brough
- Murray Chong (alternate)
TRC Regional Transport Committee
- Max Brough
- John Woodward (alternate)
Taranaki Passenger Transport Joint Committee
- Max Brough
- Christine Fabish
- EJ Barrett (alternate)
Waste Services Joint Committee
(this committee is expected to be established in place of the Taranaki Solid Waste Working Party)
- Max Brough
- Murray Chong
- Christine Fabish (alternate)
The following appointees to external bodies are expected to be confirmed at the Council meeting on Thursday 18 December 2025.
TRC Policy & Planning
- Dinnie Moeahu
- John Woodward (alternate)
Sport Taranaki
- David Bublitz
Heritage Taranaki
- Christine Fabish
Friends of Pukekura Park
- Te Waka McLeod
- Kerry Vosseler
Star Gym
- John Woodward
TAFT
- Max Brough
Womad NZ
- Max Brough
Legal Advice
Here is the independent legal advice received by New Plymouth District Council regarding the initial idea of having multiple co-deputies concurrently, published by Dinnie Moeahu on his Facebook page:
Section 41 of the LGA provides for the governing bodies of local authorities. Section 41A then sets out the role and powers of mayors, which includes a power to “appoint the deputy mayor”. A territorial authority is different from a regional council in that respect, as instead of having a chairperson that is “elected”, there is a power of appointment given to the Mayor for various roles / positions.
The general scheme of the LGA, including all provisions that refer to the “deputy mayor”, uses singular language, and on the face of it, those provisions do not contemplate more than one deputy mayor being “appointed”. For example, there are provisions in Schedule 7 which contemplate that if the Mayor is unavailable the (singular) deputy mayor will preside. The Council’s Standing Orders (here: ECM_9476713_v2_Standing Orders for Council and Committee Meetings (adopted 25 March 2025)) reflect these statutory presumptions by referring to “a Deputy Mayor”, and “the Deputy Mayor” (see SO 5.1, which deals with the appointment process). We note that if the Mayor decides not to exercise the power of appointment, there must be an election to that position, which again supports the intention that there is a single person in the role.
Although section 19 of the Legislation Act 2019 provides “Words in the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include the singular”, section 9 of the Legislation Act then says that this rule applies unless the context of the legislation requires a different interpretation. While this issue is untested (as far as we know), our view is that section 41A(3)(a) (and the broader scheme of the LGA) provides a context in which the use of singular language is deliberate and does not include the plural.
It is possible that the Council could decide to have a rotating Deputy Mayors, but the provisions in Schedule 7 could complicate this, as could the expectations of the Remuneration Authority about remuneration. The remuneration provisions in Schedule 7 do not appear to readily accommodate co-deputy mayors, but we expect that there could be some workaround (with 1/3 share of the additional remuneration).
In summary, the proposal as you have outlined it seems problematic. We make the following additional points:
We do not have an issue with the role of deputy mayor being held by different appointed members sequentially, but so long as there is only one at a time. Appointing three elected members as the Deputy Mayor – all of whom will be the deputy mayor at any given time, but only one with statutory powers – does not align with an orthodox interpretation of the LGA, the Council’s governance statement – which notes “The Mayor is able to appoint their own deputy mayor” (again, in the singular) local-governance-statement-updated-september-2024.pdf, or the Council’s standing orders. In our view it is a strong contextual point to make that if the power of appointment is not exercised, there must be an election for the role of the Deputy Mayor (which would elect one person to the role, and rule out sharing of the role).
We agree that any statutory roles can only be performed by one Deputy Mayor at a time, but are not convinced that there may be more than one Deputy Mayor performing non-statutory roles. Based on the above, our view is that there can be only one Deputy Mayor at any time, which covers all relevant roles – both statutory and non-statutory roles.
Section 41A(3)(a) supports this interpretation, by providing a limited power of appointment, rather than addressing the power to do things once appointed. Put another way, if there can only be one Deputy Mayor appointed under the LGA, there can only be one person holding that position and performing the role (e.g. statutory or non-statutory actions). The question that this leads to is how could the Mayor possibly satisfy section 41A(3)(a) – which refers to “the” (singular) deputy mayor – when seeking to appoint a second and third one. On a plain interpretation of the LGA, this would appear to be an unlawful appointment (for the second and third).
There could be non-statutory positions created for the extra two elected members, but in our view they cannot hold themselves out to be Deputy Mayor, which is statutory (appointed) position. As it is not intended that they will perform official deputy mayor functions in any case, this would not lead to any potential uncertainty. For example, if those members were (while they were not the appointed Deputy Mayor) allocated another title, e.g. senior councillor or words to that effect, that would not run the risk of leading to confusion about who is in fact the appointed Deputy Mayor.
