After a change in local government legislation,[3] the Upper Hutt Town Board was proclaimed in 1908.

[4] The seventh and last chairman of the town board, Angus McCurdy, was elected as the first mayor of the Upper Hutt Borough Council, which was formed in 1926.

[5][10] He was succeeded by one-term councillor Wayne Guppy, who was elected with a 6,000 vote majority and who has held the mayoralty since then.

[10][11] Unusual for a city in New Zealand, none of the chairmen or mayors of Upper Hutt has been a Member of Parliament.

[12] Until 2004, First Past the Post (FPP) was the electoral system used for New Zealand local elections (with few historic exceptions) including in Upper Hutt.