New Zealand's young elected members back Gore mayor Ben Bell
A letter that urges the Gore District Council to embrace diversity and inclusivity, as well as support the next generation of leaders “who will help shape the future of the country."
New Zealand’s young elected members have thrown their support behind Gore Mayor Ben Bell after he was asked this week by councillors to resign.
The Young Elected Members of New Zealand Aotearoa has penned a letter that urges the Gore District Council to “embrace diversity and inclusivity, as well as support the next generation of leaders who will help shape the future of the country”.
The letter is signed by the group’s co-chairs which includes Invercargill city councillor Alex Crackett.
The letter says it unanimously supports Bell as he navigates the challenges at the Gore council.
At 23 Bell is New Zealand’s youngest mayor.
Gore District Council deputy mayor Keith Hovell and intermediary Cr Richard McPhail said they met Bell on Wednesday and asked him to resign.
Councillors Stewart MacDonell, Neville Phillips, Glenys Dickson, Paul McPhail and Bronwyn Reid support the resignation request.
In a statement, Cr Hovell said the actions of the mayor in recent weeks had led to the difficult decision to request his resignation.
He says the reasons for the request were:
• The majority of councillors had lost confidence in the mayor
• The majority of councillors had lost trust in the mayor acting in the best interests of the community and the council as a whole.
The resignation request comes after a well-publicised breakdown in working relationship between Bell and CEO Steve Parry.
In light of the mayor declining the request to resign, a requisition has been given to the chief executive calling for an extraordinary meeting, to be held next Tuesday before the council’s scheduled meeting, Cr Hovell said.
The requisition requests that the council consider three resolutions.
The first is that the council writes to the Minister of Local Government requesting a meeting with council representatives. The purpose of the meeting will be to talk about intervention measures available to assist the council to effectively govern and conduct its business as usual.
Cr Hovell said the councillors’ desired outcome was to preserve the democratic representation, with some support by the Crown.
“We are eager to continue to represent the interests of the wider community and the people we serve.”
The other resolutions are:
• That the council passes a vote of no confidence in the mayor
• The council removes the mayor from all committees, sub-committees and joint committees
Bell issued the following statement after it was made public that some councillors had asked that he resign, and a vote of no confidence planned.
“I am still uncertain as to why this step has been taken during this time. Despite this, I am hopeful the council can communicate effectively and work through this,” he said.
“I am very mindful of the impact this is having on the community and wish to reassure the Gore District that I remain committed to undertaking the role I was elected to do.”
He said he was grateful for the messages of support he had received and added he would not be commenting further at this time.
Elected by the people waz were the other councilers
They now need to get their heads together and start working together.
Oh and the CEO needs to go
Need to start a fresh .
Old boys net work needs quashed and the young one needs support
What ever happened at accepting the way the rate payers voted and getting to work.
All those who can't work in this new set up need to ask them selves are they realy in this for the right reasons.
Too sad really.
Councilkers thinking they can revolt when there is change they don't like need to take a hard long look at themselves and ask is this the right place for me Am I like thus cause I don't like or want change.
For heavens sake you are going to be wasting rate payers money sorting out your bad behaviour
And there is no acountabilty for how much money gets wasted .
Wake up gore council you ard going to waste alot of rate payers money . On what .
Squabbling childish attitudes.
Get over your selves and work together.
hang in there ben