Kieran McAnulty 'keeping an eye' on Gore council, hasn't intervened yet

Tuesday, 4 April 2023

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty said he recently met with Gore district mayor Ben Bell, but didn’t elaborate on what the two talked about.

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty says he’s monitoring the conflict at the Gore District Council, but it hasn’t yet reached the point at which he can intervene.

McAnulty said he met with Gore district mayor Ben Bell last week when he met with a Young Elected Members Group of Local Government New Zealand in Wellington, but he did not elaborate on what was discussed.

“I haven't felt compelled to give them a ring at this point as minister and sort of say,’ okay, let's get this sorted’. It hasn't got to that point yet.”

In the last week the council has held an extraordinary meeting after the working relationship between Bell and council chief executive Stephen Parry broke down.

* Gore mayor Ben Bell walked out of meeting addressing issues between him and council chief executive

* 'Traumatic time': Gore's councillors discussed 'vote of no confidence' in Ben Bell

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty said the Gore District Council was currently meeting its statutory obligations, but the Government was ‘’keeping an eye on it.’’

The pair entered into mediation in December, but last week Parry described his relationship with Bell as ‘’very strained’’.

At the meeting a vote of no confidence in the mayor was discussed, and it was decided a councillor would be appointed to act as an intermediary between the two for governance and relevant operational matters.

On Monday, long-standing councillor Bret Highsted resigned, saying since the last election, he had found the council environment “highly stressful and the levels of anxiety unsustainable”.

On his way into the House on Tuesday, McAnulty said his role was to ensure the council met its statutory obligations, and at the moment it was.

“But we are keeping an eye on it, obviously we want things to run smoothly, but at the moment the breakdown of relationship doesn't meet any criteria for us to consider intervention at this point.’’

When asked if the conflicts could lead to the council not meeting its obligations, he said there were breakdowns and relationships across any sector, and he hoped it would get resolved.

He said both Parry and Bell resigning, so the conflict would be resolved, would be ‘’a pretty drastic measure”.

'The first step would be to try and resolve the relationship because we don’t want things deteriorating,” he said.

”As I say, at the moment they're meeting their statutory obligations. So from the Department of Internal Affairs’ perspective, which is my perspective as well, we don't intend to interfere at this point.”

Late last week a Department of Internal Affairs spokesperson said it was “aware of the situation” at the Gore District Council.

“We are keeping an eye on it. We are likely to reach out to the council as we would to any council with significant adverse media.”

On Monday, Bell said he was ‘’shocked’’ at Highsted’s resignation and wondered why he had written his resignation letter to Parry and deputy mayor Keith Hovell.

On Tuesday, a council spokesperson said the mayor was incorrect in stating resignations must be made to him, and under the Local Government Act any resignation by a councillor must be made in writing to the chief executive.