9 June 2025
Fred Patterson
By email: [FYI request #30922 email]
Tēnā koe Fred
INFORMATION REQUEST
On 8 May 2025 you asked for information about the Tauranga City Council elected members
and Chief Executive(s) credit card expenditure as well as refreshments and catering costs for
elected members and executive leadership. Here is our response to your questions:
1. A list of all credit card transactions made by Tauranga City Council elected
members and Chief Executive(s) from 1 January 2023 to 30 April 2025. Please
include:
• Date of transaction
• Description of purchase
• Amount spent
• Name or role of the person who made the purchase
See
Attachment 1 - CE Credit Card Charges for the Chief Executive’s credit card
expenditure. No credit card has been issued to the elected members. All credit card
expenditure is managed by TCCs Purchasing Card Policy. This policy ensures that all
transactions require proper documentation, approval, and compliance with Council
policies.
Any spending of this nature is governed by TCCs Sensitive Expenditure Policy (see
Attachment 2 - Sensitive Expenditure Policy). This policy ensures that spending is
handled with integrity, transparency and careful judgement.
Tauranga City Council Private Bag 12022, Tauranga 3143, New Zealand +64 7 577 7000 [Tauranga City Council request email] www.tauranga.govt.nz
2. A breakdown of all council expenditure on refreshments and catering
(including coffee machines, vending machines, food or drink services) for
elected members and executive leadership between 1 January 2023 and 31
December 2024. Please include:
• Description of the item or service
• Supplier name
• Date of purchase
• Total cost
This can be seen in
Attachment 3 - List of Commissioner/Mayor Civic Refreshment
Expenses and
Attachment 4 - Executive Team Catering/Refreshment Costs. Supplier
names have not been included, as extracting and compiling them would require
significant staff time and we would need to consider a charge for this part of your
request. Please let us know if you want us to proceed with this. Information about
charging can be found here: https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/council/forms-fees-and-
payments/fees-and-charges/lgoima-fees-and-charges
We have had a similar information request about the Mayor’s and Chief Executive’s
expenses for the period 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. For completeness,
this is also included, please see
Attachment 5 -Table of CE Expenses for a detailed
record of the Chief Executive’s expenses for that period. Listed under Travel
Expenses are multiple charges of $9.10. These are allocated to this cost centre but
relate to wider staff travel. We use Orbit as our travel provider, and travel costs are
charged monthly based on their billing. The two international trips listed under
Conference Expenses were for the following:
a. A project delegation to the Gold Coast, Australia to review marine facilities
b. Infrastructure NZ delegation to the United Kingdom
Tauranga has only had a Mayor since 23 July 2024. A list of the Mayor’s expense
claims to date can be viewed online at the following link:
https://www.tauranga.govt.nz/Portals/0/data/council/councillors/files/expenses/ems-
expense-claims-2024-2028.pdf
This request and the response have been considered under the LGOIMA.1
If you are not happy with this response you have the right to seek an investigation and
review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
This response may be published on our website, all personal information will be removed.
If you have any questions about this letter, please contact me.
Ngā mihi
Kath Norris
Team Leader
Democracy Services
1 Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987
2
