"I've made this decision with the approval of my bosses. I am certainly not running for mayoralty because I already have a fulltime job.
"However during the campaign, I will obviously need to be impartial so will avoid the topic altogether."
There are two other confirmed candidates in the running for the seat, Carl Heenan and David Pottinger.
The council has been plagued with controversy in recent times.
A governance review was carried out by Richard Thomson after the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) launched an investigation in August in response to concerns raised about the performance of the mayor and councillors.
Thomson found there was a clear consensus the mayor struggled to fulfil significant mayoral roles, such as providing an appropriate link between the governance (councillors) and management (senior staff), which would normally be a key role of a mayor.