Aaron Hawkins announced yesterday he would be standing in the Dunedin City Council by-election.
Significant changes in the political landscape since last year’s council elections, as well as the by-election’s timing, were behind his "unexpected" decision, he said.
Mr Hawkins said nobody before the last council election had anticipated the scale and speed of the government’s reform programme.
Rates capping and regional government reorganisation required robust responses, he said.
The council needed to have courage to fight the government’s planned imposition of a cap on rates rises rather than rolling over, he said.
"The appetite of our community to invest in its future shouldn’t be decided by someone sitting behind a desk in Wellington," Mr Hawkins said.
A by-election is required after the death last month of city councillor and former mayor Jules Radich.
Nominations are open until March 2. The by-election date is May 12.
Mr Hawkins was a councillor from 2013 to 2019 and mayor from 2019 until 2022. He lost the mayoralty to Mr Radich.
Mr Hawkins was previously elected on a Green Party ticket, but said this time he was running as an independent candidate.
"My values haven’t changed," he said.
"I will continue to prioritise building stronger communities, looking after our natural environment and strengthening ties with mana whenua and Māori more generally."
The announcement of his council candidacy brought a swift reaction from a rival for the position, Jo Galer.
"He is a failed mayor," she said.
"I don’t think Dunedin needs or wants him back."
Mr Hawkins said some of the council decision-making that happened under his watch had since been vindicated, such as the redevelopment of George St as a pedestrian-friendly street.
"It was really interesting with that as time went on and it became more and more obvious what it was going to look like and how it was going to function ... we saw support build."
Former city councillors Bill Acklin and Conrad Stedman are in the by-election race, as well as Lync Aronson, Richard Knights and Pamela Taylor.
Asked if he might have a run at the mayoralty next time, Mr Hawkins said he had no interest in it.
"I had no intention of coming back to do local government work at all," he said.
"I genuinely felt that that chapter had closed."
Mr Hawkins said his thoughts were with Mr Radich’s wife, Pam Walker, and their friends and whānau, and he expected the by-election process would be tough for them.
Voting opens on April 10.
