Mayor of Tasman


The Mayor of Tasman is the head of the municipal government of Tasman District, New Zealand. The mayor is directly elected using the first-past-the-post electoral system.
The current mayor has, since the 2019 local elections, been Tim King.

History

Tasman District was established as part of the 1989 local government reforms. Kerry Marshall, who had been Mayor of Richmond borough since 1986, became the first Mayor of Tasman in 1989.
After three terms by Marshall, John Hurley was voted in as the second mayor in 1998. In the 2001 election, Colleen Marshall, the wife of Kerry Marshall, contested the mayoralty, but Hurley was re-elected. Hurley remained mayor until he was defeated by Kempthorne in the 2007 elections, when four candidates contested the position and Kempthorne received 49% of the votes. The 2010 local elections were contested by three candidates, and Kempthorne was returned with an absolute majority. The 2013 local elections were contested by five candidates, and Kempthorne had a slim majority over sitting councillor Kit Maling.
After three terms by Kempthorne, Tim King was voted in as the fourth mayor in 2019. The election was contested by four candidates with King securing a comfortable lead over the other candidates. Tim King brings twenty one years of experience with eighteen years as deputy mayor.

List of mayors of Tasman

Tasman has had four mayors:
NameTerm
1Kerry Marshall1989–1998
2John Hurley1998–2007
3Richard Kempthorne2007–2019
4Tim King2019–present