Ben Bell Photo: Supplied / Facebook
Gore Mayor Ben Bell says his relationship with council chief executive Stephen Parry is "perfectly fine", but he will not be drawn on what the future holds.
Emails obtained by RNZ under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act have revealed the Gore District Council turned to an outside facilitator to mend the fractured relationships around the table after a tumultuous start to the triennium.
The council confirmed it had spent $11,200 to date on the facilitation process.
But Bell, his deputy Keith Hovell and the council refused to address many other aspects of the infighting which plagued the council after then 23-year-old Bell ousted long-time incumbent Tracy Hicks at last year's local elections.
The emails showed each of the 10 councillors and the mayor spoke with the facilitator one-on-one in June before taking part in a joint facilitation meeting last month. Bell said it was just what the council needed.
"It's quite obvious the council has been in a bit of a pressure cooker environment recently and we recognised some trust was eroded between councillors, so it was worthwhile having the facilitation process so we could work through our issues and move forward together as a united council.
"It provided an open space where we could talk about the issues that we had between ourselves, but what it really taught us and what we came away with was there's an overwhelming desire to put things behind us and move forward together."
He acknowledged mistakes were made.
"I came in on a mandate of change, but I didn't realise that me just coming in as the youngest mayor was change enough. So I tried to install a whole lot more change after the fact. So there's been a bit of reflection on my behalf of how things could've been done differently.
"So our relationship with councillors as a group is significantly better now and communication is better than it ever has been."
One of the big sticking points was his relationship with chief executive Parry. RNZ revealed in March, the two men had not been on speaking terms since December when mediation between them broke down.
Bell said things had improved.
"The relationship's going perfectly fine."
However, one area he would not talk about was what led to a joint statement of all elected members on 21 June. The statement included an apology to the community and to Parry.
The day before the statement came out Bell was absent from a policy and regulatory committee meeting, as was Parry and senior councillors Richard McPhail and Stewart MacDonell.
Bell would not say where he was.
"I was in another meeting," he offered when questioned on his whereabouts.
When pressed on what the meeting pertained to, he said: "If I was to disclose that it would give away who the meeting was with, as with other calendar appointments that I have it's to protect the privacy of the people that I meet with".
He would not confirm if McPhail or MacDonell was present at the meeting. Neither Bell, the council nor its councillors would discuss whether that meeting was about mediation with Parry.
McPhail did not respond to RNZ requests for comment, while MacDonell only responded "no comment on that at all, no comment whatsoever" when asked if he was involved in mediation with the chief executive.
RNZ requested copies of the diaries of Bell, Parry, McPhail and MacDonell from 19-21 June. The council declined that request.
Asked if that should be public information, MacDonell said: "You can't get anything in my diary because I don't keep a diary of council stuff.
"It's not necessary, we are dealing with an issue and we've dealt with it."
RNZ asked Bell if he believed it was in the public interest to disclose any ongoing or concluded mediation: "We're not here to talk about employment matters", he said.
"The chief executive is the only employee of the council and that's between the council and our employee, so it's not up for public consumption."
Bell was also non-committal when asked if the current chief executive would still be in his role next year.
"I'm not here to talk about the relationship with the chief executive," he said.
The rocky start to Bell's term was punctuated by calls to resign from his deputy, Keith Hovell, and other senior councillors in May. A group of councillors then planned to call for a vote of no confidence in Bell before backing down after protesters gathered outside the council's extraordinary meeting.
Ben Bell supporters outside of the Gore district council building. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Hovell told RNZ he believed he was acting in the best interests of council at the time.
"There was a high degree of frustration amongst councillors. I had a role in terms of representing the views of councillors to the mayor and I did that, and I don't wish to comment further at this time."
"I don't believe I was overstepping the mark," he responded when pressed. "I was acting in what I saw as the interest of council. As I said, we were under a lot of pressure at the time, we have talked through the issues and we are moving on."
At the time, Hovell spoke of witnessing bad behaviour and needing to call it out, but he did not provide specifics.
Asked if he would now reveal what he was talking about, he only responded "no".
RNZ had sought interviews with Bell and Hovell regularly in the past few months, but they were always declined or left unanswered.
RNZ also sought interviews or responses from senior executives Parry and Rex Capil for this article - those went unanswered.
Bell and Hovell both agreed the council was now united and focused on delivering for the community.
