Gore tension began before mayor was sworn in
The trust issues between Gore's Mayor and the council's CEO it seems started before Ben Bell was even sworn in.
It is a working relationship that was doomed to fail before it even began.
Gore Mayor Ben Bell and long-time Gore District Council chief executive Stephen Parry are not speaking.
The full extent of the situation was laid bare for councillors to see at an extraordinary council meeting on March 28.
That meeting which “pulled no punches” was held behind closed doors but details from it have since been released to The Tribune.
An independent review is now taking place, but whatever the findings the Mayoral-CEO relationship appears to be beyond repair.
Parry - who has been Gore council’s CEO since 2001 - himself has conceded that.
The trust issues between the pair began before Bell - New Zealand’s youngest-ever mayor - had even been sworn in as Gore’s mayor.
Parry told councillors at that March 28 extraordinary meeting that through Bell’s private PA Bell had requested Parry’s employment agreement and last performance appraisal.
Parry refused until he was sworn in.
While Parry hadn’t dealt with Bell prior to the election, Bell’s mother Rebecca Tayler was a former employee at the Gore District Council.
Tayler worked as its general manager for regulatory and community services but left in 2022 and was involved in a lengthy employment dispute with the council.
Following legal advice, both Tayler and the Gore District Council have not commented on what the matter was over, or how it was resolved.
The council has since confirmed it had incurred $301,403 in legal fees in relation to the employment dispute with the now mayor of Gore’s mother.
Bell has stated his tilt at the Gore mayoralty was not a case of seeking any revenge.
He said before the election he would be able to work with all councillors and staff as the mayor.
Tayler has now told The Tribune that she was aware of suggestions that she played a role in her son’s mayoral bid as some sort of revenge towards Parry and the council.
“I have heard a lot of similar comments, and a lot of statements like that have been written about me online.
“I guess I would put it to you this way, my son stood for mayor because he thought he could make a difference for Gore. If people are suggesting I have managed to rally half of Gore to support me in some supposed vendetta that I have, that’s a very long bow to draw.
“As far as I’m aware I don’t have that kind of pull in the community,” Tayler told The Tribune.
“The reality is that the people of Gore voted for change.”
Asked, as a mother, how she felt watching her 23-year-old son become involved in such a public drama, Tayler responded: “I don’t really want to say anything and add fuel to the fire, but I’m a mother and you can understand how a mother would feel.”
It’s an ugly public spat that has generated national attention and has escalated quickly.
Both Bell and Parry shared their respective version of events to councillors at that extraordinary meeting held behind closed doors on March 28. The pair revealed the extent of the tension and just how quickly it took hold.
They outlined to councillors their view of the timeline and why the relationship hasn’t been mended.
Bell was the first to have his say. Parry was out of the room at the time.
The Gore mayor labelled the whole situation ‘exhausting’.
Bell said he felt he had done everything in his power to try and fix the relationship and pointed to the tension starting in late November when an email was circulated with six councillors but was not sent to him.
Further details about what that email entailed were redacted from the meeting minutes released under the Local Government Official Information & Meetings Act.
“Given the risk of this spiralling out of control, and attracting more negative press to the council, I took it upon myself to get advice from LGNZ [Local Government New Zealand] about how to remedy the developing situation,” Bell said about the email circulated about him.
LGNZ recommended Bell invite Parry to have a facilitated conversation. That occurred on December 19, with LGNZ providing the facilitator.
“Given how fast the day went, we verbalised a roadmap as a way to move forward to be signed formally at a later date,” Bell said about that conversation.
“These were agreed outcomes of the meeting and I believe we were both clear that we could draw a line under the issues experienced to date and move forward together.”
On February 20 the facilitator sent Bell a copy of the proposed roadmap, however, Bell believed two points had not been discussed at any point prior.
“I was taken aback by it and quite frankly offended by these.”
Further details on that matter were redacted from the meeting minutes.
Bell stated that on February 27 the facilitator messaged him saying he had not been paid. Bell said he was off sick at the time.
The facilitator then contacted Parry for payment that week and chose to exit the facilitation role at that point.
“As a result of the facilitator exiting, we still had no formal record of agreed outcomes from the meeting held in December, signed by both parties.”
An agreement could not be reached on the draft document.
Bell and Parry again met on March 13.
“In my opinion, the meeting went well, and we reached an agreement with some compromise on both sides,” Bell told his councillors.
They met again two days later, but from that point, large chunks of Bell’s explanation were redacted.
He did point out that advice was sought from LGNZ which suggested getting legal advice.
“This relationship issue has gone unresolved since November, despite my very best efforts,” Bell said.
“I feel what was, and what should have been, a simple process to set the baseline for our working relationship has been nothing of the sort.”
“I have tried time and time again to make this work and seem to be constantly finding myself in this position of sleepless nights and feeling like a council of one.”
Parry then took his turn addressing that March 28 meeting.
Parry stated he was not going to “pull any punches” as he went about highlighting the “troubles” he had endured since October when Bell was elected.
“The period between October and December had been truly dreadful.”
Parry said he had never in his life experienced isolation and things just unfolding in front of him with great surprise.”
He said he has been shut out and excluded from many decisions and then constantly taken by surprise.
Parry used Bell’s proposed committee structures as an example, saying he could have given Bell advice, but he was never asked for it.
Parry said the “dysfunctional relationship” followed just two one-on-one conversations in eight weeks.
“You could not run a council on that basis.”
He said the early indication of a problematic situation was the request from Bell asking for Parry’s employment agreement and his last performance appraisal before Bell was elected as Mayor.
Soon after Bell was confirmed as winning the Gore mayoral election, Bell publicly stated that he had not heard from Parry.
That upset Parry.
Parry said he had left a voicemail inviting Bell to meet with him so he could brief the new mayor and also advise him that he was going on annual leave.
Parry said Bell told him he must have missed the voicemail with all the media attention he was receiving after becoming New Zealand’s youngest mayor.
Parry asked if Bell would contact media and correct the statement he had made publicly about the CEO not being in touch.
Bell refused, according to Parry.
Parry instead contacted media himself.
Bell offered “an olive branch” suggesting mediation in December. Parry took that up and said he thought there could be some resolution.
The mediation on December 19 “pulled no punches” and led to an agreement to working better together and have no surprises.
However, there was a disagreement around the payment of some legal expenses which was redacted in the information provided to The Tribune.
The mediator eventually exited the process. The account for the mediation had not been paid and the mayor was not answering his calls, Parry added.
In an effort to try to resolve the matter between the mayor and chief executive, it was placed before the Appraisal Committee.
Bell stated he was not going to recommend the council pay the legal expenses that had become an issue.
Once Bell left that meeting, the committee recommended the legal costs be paid.
Parry said in a bizarre set of circumstances, the matter then did not make it to the March 21 meeting.
Deputy mayor Keith Hovell sought Parry out at a meeting saying he had spoken with Bell and told Parry the matter would not be considered at the March council meeting, despite it being on the agenda.
Bell then wrote to Parry asking if he could get expenses signed off to avoid having an extraordinary Council meeting.
Parry advised Bell he did not have the authority.
“The situation was frustrating. Since mediation, there were still problems and some had become acute,” Parry said.
Parry said he just wanted to be able to do his job.
He gave examples of how frustrating and “risk-laden” the matters had been.
After the annual report had been adopted, Parry said Bell delayed signing the letter of representation to the auditors.
Parry said he approached Bell after a citizenship ceremony on February 24 and asked why it was being held up.
The mayor said he wanted to visit the auditors, Parry stated.
Parry told him if it was not signed the approval would become null and void and he would have to go back to the council for approval again which would be embarrassing.
Parry said he had reached the end of his tether. The relationship had broken down and in his view was irreparable.
He requested that Bell be removed from the CEO Appraisal Committee.
Bell had been caught with “his hands in the procedure till” and had tried to short-change him, Parry told councillors.
He would not put up with it. He had tried to move on but for the protection of himself and ultimately the Council, that needed to be protected, Parry said.
It appears there is no end in sight, in terms of sorting the broken relationship that shows no signs of being fixed anytime soon, if ever in fact.
Parry needs to go. Bell is elected Parry is an employee. This will never be resolved. There are much deeper reasons than we know. Plus the ole guard do not like the young gun.