The election saw one-term Mayor Ian Lawrence defeated by local advertising agent Jim Belich.

[2] A major issue faced by the council during the term was the increasingly unpopular practice of raw sewage discharge into the sea.

The two main candidates, Lawrence and Belich, had been friends for nearly twenty years adding a more personal element to the election than normal.

[3] The two had first met in the late-1960s when Lawrence, as a member of the Jaycees, helped organise a fundraising international ball for a UNICEF, which Belich was president of.

One newspaper ad showed a toilet on the beach, linking to the clean water campaign to stop raw sewage discharge at Moa Point.