Gore District Council budget blowout on legal fees

Tuesday, 15 November 2022

Gore District Council chief executive Stephen Parry.

The Gore District Council has blown out its budget for legal fees for the past two years as it dealt with a confidential employment matter and environment court proceedings over its bid to build a bridge across the Mataura River.

The council’s budget for legal fees was $106,860 for the year ending June 30, 2021, but it spent nearly twice that, at $204,804.68.

The legal fees budget was $134,640 for the year ending June 30, 2022, but the council spent $560,310.86.

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Former Gore District Council general manager, regulatory and community services Rebecca Tayler with her son, Gore District mayor Ben Bell. (File photo)

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An artist impression of the $3.7million cable-stay design bridge as part of a $10.8million project to carry water pipelines from the East Gore plant to the Jacobstown wells.

Stuff had early made an Official Information Act request to the council seeking how much it had spent on legal fees in relation to an employment matter with Rebecca Tayler, mother of new Gore District mayor Ben Bell, but this was initially declined.

However, council ceo Steve Parry said after a period of careful reflection and taking on board the considerable and intensifying public interest in this matter, it would provide a statement.

The statement says “Ms Tayler left the council after her position was disestablished as a result of local government reforms, and after undertaking a period of project work, to pursue other opportunities. The council incurred $301,403 for its own legal fees in relation to this.”

Tayler was employed as the council’s general manager, regulatory and community services on October 5, 2020.

In October, said her role was disestablished on April 14, 2022. She said she was then engaged for some short-term project work for the council until July 30, 2022, before moving on to other opportunities.

The other significant item in 2021/22 was the proposed Longford Shared Path bridge which generated about $75,000 in legal expenses, Parry said.

Resource consents for the bridge were granted, but they were appealed to the Environment Court by the Waimea Plains Landscape Preservation Society. A judge declined the consents, which was a win for the preservation society.

Fifty-six percent of that total was able to be recovered from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, he said.

Once the employment matter and the Longford Shared Path bridge were removed from the actual legal spend for the year ending 30 June 2022, it could be seen that legal expenditure was very much in line with budgetary expectations, Parry said.