KEY POINTS:
A mayoral by-election will be held in Western Bay of Plenty District early next year after Mayor Graeme Weld died earlier this month.
Council chief executive Glenn Snelgrove said that all eligible voters in the district would be sent voting papers from Friday, February 13, as part of a postal vote for the mayoralty that will close on Saturday, March 7.
Individuals wanting to put their name forward for the mayoralty will be able to do so from December 19 to January 16.
Mr Snelgrove said that should a sitting member of the council or a community board be elected, a by-election would be held for the vacant council or community board position.
"In the interim Kaimai Ward councillor Ross Paterson will continue in the role of acting mayor," he said.
Mr Weld, 70, was in his third term as mayor, and had been unwell for some months when he died in Tauranga Hospital on November 15.
He had held the mayoral position since November 2001 and was the fifth mayor of the council since its establishment in 1989.
- NZPA
