The regional council started Quayside in 1991 with a port stake worth $53 million. This had grown to be worth $2.5b by mid-2025, alongside other assets.
The directors leaving include board chairman Mark Wynne and members Fraser Whineray and Keiran Horne, who brought her previously announced departure date forward.
The council’s chief executive, Fiona McTavish, stepped down from the board on June 25.
Council chairwoman Matemoana McDonald said the Quayside board changes followed “a council-led review” and resolution to “progressively reduce” the board’s size from seven to five members.
Two regional councillors currently sit on the board. The council has reappointed independent director David Fear, and new independent director Danielle Auld started on July 1. Both were on three-year terms.
The council told the Bay of Plenty Times the fifth seat would be for an independent director.
Mayors, MPs ask ministers to step in
The council last month amended its Long-term Plan 2024-34 to enable the portfolio’s assets to be split by asset type into new entities in the future.
It also agreed to explore partnering with a community trust or forming a new charitable trust to hold the investments.
The mayors collectively wrote to Watts and Minister Responsible for Resource Management Act Reform, Chris Bishop, who have been leading local government reforms.
The mayors asked them to urgently engage with the council and consider intervening by “pausing or deferring the material structural components” of the amendment.
Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell and Tauranga-based Act MP Cameron Luxton told the Bay of Plenty Times they also urged the ministers to look at the issue.
Council advised to ‘exercise restraint’
Watts’ letter to McDonald said councils should “exercise restraint” when making “significant, long-term decisions” relating to the ownership and governance of key regional assets until reform outcomes were clear.
He said the loss of independent expertise from Quayside’s board was “concerning” and independent directors played a “critical role in the prudent management of financial assets”.
A regional council spokesperson said councillors were reviewing correspondence from Watts and it was too early to comment further.
Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell said, in his view, regional councillors should not be on the board of Quayside Holdings. Photo / Alex Cairns
Uffindell said he expressed his concerns to Watts on Thursday.
Uffindell “strongly” disagreed with the regional council’s intended approach towards Quayside, and believed neither councillors nor its chief executive should be on the board.
In his view: “It’s a conflict of interest – get out of it and let independent directors with appropriate commercial acumen grow the fund without political interference.”
Uffindell also questioned the timing of the restructure during the reforms.
He said he feared it was a council “ploy” to “grab Quayside’s assets, erode the capital base and waste funds on ”a bunch of feel-good projects with little oversight and marginal benefit”.
He said he believed the independent directors’ departures indicated their concern about the fund’s direction.
In his view: “Independent directors are talking with their feet and I can’t blame them.”
Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford said he supported Watts’ letter.
“Now is not the time for the regional council to make substantial decisions before there is more certainty about the structure of local government.”
Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford has echoed Minister Watts’ call for the regional council to “exercise restraint when making significant long-term decisions”. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Responding to the MPs’ comments, a council spokesperson said it had been looking “for some time” at whether the way its regional investments were structured, governed and managed remained fit-for-purpose for the Bay of Plenty – now and into the future.
Reducing Quayside’s board was part of that work and would help ensure governance remained efficient and cost-effective, which would keep costs down for ratepayers.
The spokesperson said the amendment provided a framework for future decisions about the investment portfolio and did not make any immediate operational changes to Quayside.
“This is an enabling decision to explore investment models that could deliver greater community access to funding, in a similar way that both Auckland and New Plymouth have done.”
In a June 26 Quayside statement to the NZX, Wynne said the council had set its “preferred governance direction for the next phase”.
The independent directors “respect the shareholder’s role in making those decisions” and would support an orderly transition.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.