The good, the bad, the ugly that is Gore [at the moment]

“Extreme circumstances sometimes need to call for extreme measures. Under any kind of independent assessment, you’d have to say that council has struggled quite majorly over the past six months."

Gore CEO Stephen Parry and Gore Mayor Ben Bell are not speaking.

ANALYSIS: Tuesday’s Gore District Council meeting provided a reminder of something special brewing in the town.

That though was before the ugly relationship breakdown between the council’s Mayor and CEO again took centre stage in front of national media.

Organisers of the Bayleys Tussock Country Music Festival started the meeting with a presentation to council in its quest for a small amount of funding.

I say small because the potential return on investment of such an event for the district is exciting.

There was a genuine consensus the town was on to a winner with the 10-day event.

Then the matter of a fractured council - at the very top at least - took over the meeting.

Deputy mayor Keith Hovell started proceedings.

He used his introduction to a notice of motion to take a pot-shot at reporters for the amount of unwanted coverage Gore had received during the first six months of the term.

“[There’s] frustration because of the unrelenting desire of the press to search out what they see as a good story…. I would much prefer the reporters here today to talk about the good things that make the Gore District what I consider the best provincial area in New Zealand.”

“We have a library that has just opened that is probably the most modern and innovative in the country, we have a museum addition that looks at the whisky that was made in the hills, we are the country music capital of New Zealand, and the brown trout capital as well.”

Hovell has every right to be frustrated, but to think those reporters on the ground should be focused on libraries, whisky, and the brown trout at the moment is simply naive.

Your CEO Stephen Parry and Mayor Ben Bell are not speaking. The relationship has broken down six months into a three-year term. Those reporters would be doing the Gore Ratepayers a disservice by not delving into it.

A sentence or two after that crack at reporters Hovell himself stated the relationship between the Mayor and CEO is “dysfunctional” and “not sustainable”.

That warrants some attention.

Hovell’s notice of motion asking that “the Gore District Council seek an independent Review advising on the practical measures that can be undertaken to restore confidence in the Gore District Council” is the start needed.

The good part is all councillors and Bell voted in favour of that review being undertaken. Someone from outside the building can come in and advise what’s at play here. Unfortunately, it will come at a cost to the Gore ratepayer. That’s unfair.

Despite that agreement around a review, the remainder of the meeting continued to provide a window into just how fractured the Mayor and CEO’s relationship is.

They sat side by side at the top of the table but couldn’t be further apart in their thinking.

In fact, it continued after the meeting when both Bell and Parry individually addressed the media in attendance. For full transparency, I wasn’t one of them. I was juggling watching the meeting’s livestream with other jobs.

Some of the comments during and after the meeting were telling.

One agenda item centred around the CEO’s appraisal with the suggested removal of Bell from the committee that looked after that.

Bell pushed back, citing the Local Government Act which he says by default makes a mayor a member of all council committees.

Parry said advice had been sought from the council’s lawyer verbally and it was confirmed the mayor could be removed from the committee.

He suggested getting that opinion in written form for councillors.

Cr Richard McPhail asked Bell if he wished to remain on the CEO’s appraisal committee.

“By virtue of the Act councillor I am still on the committee,” Bell responded.

McPhail: “The question is do you wish to remain, or do you wish to remove yourself?”

Bell: “Whether I wish to remove myself or stay on, by virtue I am a member of that committee regardless.”

Later in the meeting the draft terms of reference for the “chief executive intermediary” was then raised.

In simple terms, McPhail has been appointed to work as an intermediary between Bell and Parry given the relationship breakdown.

The terms and references again received some pushback from Bell.

“I’m not too sure why authorising/delegating the chief executive’s annual leave and credit card statements is being stripped by me. It is something I’ve always done on time and have never contested credit card statements or annual leave.”

“I also don’t understand why the authorized signatory has been stripped off me. So, I guess some clarification on why they are being added in there. Are they necessary in there or is it more as an intermediary?”

Cr Neville Phillips said it was making sure the functionality of the council remained while the review takes place.

“Don’t take it has slight on yourself, none whatsoever. It’s about the functionality of the council, that’s the main objective.”

Cr Bronwyn Reid added it was the council’s duty to be responsible for the chief executive’s well-being “in this situation.”

Although that didn’t seem to wash with Bell.

“Councillor Reid, I don’t see how approving legal documents on the council’s behalf or attending chairs meetings is relative to the chief executive’s well-being,” Bell said.

Parry was asked if he wished to add something, and he did with a very pointed statement.

“The documents issue is that unfortunately there’s been prolonged delays in having things signed off. Councillors will be aware of that.

“So that’s why I wanted an intermediary to quickly be able to get things signed off and keep things moving. This council has been paralyzed with trying to make any sort of progress over the past six months.”

“So that’s why that particular provision was sort to keep things moving in the council. And you know about the letters of representation to finalise our annual report that nearly resulted in having to get a fresh approval from this council.”

Bell responded: "I don’t think any document that I have meant to be signed has come back to council to sign, so I don’t see the need for it.”

The verbal barbs, if you like, flowed into the pair’s conversations with media after the meeting.

RNZ’s Tim Brown asked Bell if he agreed with Parry’s comment during the meeting that the Gore council had been paralyzed during the past six months.

“No, I don’t,” Bell responded, before declining to elaborate further.

Bell was also asked if another two and half years of this is tenable.

“No, and that’s why we’ve got a review in place and also an intermediary to sort this out.”

If there was one thing that the pair could agree on is that it needs to be sorted.

“Extreme circumstances sometimes need to call for extreme measures. Under any kind of independent assessment, you’d have to say that council has struggled quite majorly over the past six months,” Parry said.

Stuff journalist Rachael Kelly asked Parry how it got this bad and why the Mayor and himself do not get on.

“It’s quite a long back story. But what I want to emphasise is I made the offer of help and assistance right from the get-go.

“So soon as the mayor was the mayor elect, I reached out to him. I then left a voice message with him to say could you give us 10 minutes of your time to talk through some transitional issues. That voice message wasn’t returned and the subsequent correction I sought in the paper… wasn’t actioned and that got things off to a rocky start,” Parry said.

“Then there was a period of just being frozen out. The mayor did not want to receive the advice of not just me but my senior staff. That was rebuffed and we got to the situation where we only talked twice one on one in two months before Christmas.

“I think both sides would suggest that’s not particularly sustainable.”

This independent review cannot come fast enough. The key question will then be whether elected members accept the findings of the review and act on it.

That will determine how these next two and half years play out in Gore and whether some of the focus can be switched back to libraries, whisky, country music, and the brown trout as its deputy mayor would like.