Horivska District Council.
photo: RNZ / Nate MacKinnon
The chief executive of Gore District Council has misled the media about councilors’ seditious discussions about their mayor, Ben Bell.
The then 23-year-old mayor walked out of a closed council meeting on March 28 where his rift with council chief executive Stephen Parry was discussed.
As soon as Bell left, Mataura ward councilor Neville Phillips floated the idea of a motion of no confidence in the mayor, multiple sources confirmed to RNZ.
It was discussed for a few minutes and touched upon at other times during the meeting.
A council statement two days later said: “At no point in the meeting was there a vote of no confidence in the mayor.”
Asked directly by RNZ – after the statement was released – whether the topic of no confidence had been raised during the meeting, the council’s general manager of community life, Rex Capil, said: “No proposals were made or discussed.”
Deputy Mayor Keith Howell was tagged in this email response.
Howell was present during the March 28 meeting.
Hor Major Ben Bell.
photo: Supplied / Facebook
Howell led an effort to force Bell to resign two weeks ago, and when he refused, called for a vote of no confidence in a special meeting last week.
Howell and other rebellious councilors eventually relented under public pressure.
But emails revealed by RNZ under the Official Information Act and local authority meetings show Kapil was even more outspoken in his denials about the no-confidence debate when asked by Stuff.
“I can categorically confirm that the vote of no confidence in the mayor was NOT discussed at the meeting on Tuesday night. Well, certainly not at any meeting I attended,” Kapil wrote in an email to the council’s general manager of communications and customer support Sonia Gerken and chief executive Stephen Parry.
Stuff asked Gerken to confirm whether “a motion of no confidence in the mayor was discussed at Tuesday night’s meeting but not passed”.
A day after Kapil’s rebuttal, Stuff published a story saying councilor: “John Hardin said there was a discussion at the meeting about the motion of no confidence in the mayor, but because it was in committee he didn’t discuss it.”
This prompted Gerken to ask Kepil why Hardin’s comments contradicted his own.
“Clarification – my e-mail address [Stuff] should have read “the vote of no confidence was NOT passed at the Tuesday night meeting,” Kapil replied.
“A very brief question of ‘no confidence’ was raised, but discussion did not progress to a motion or vote.”
The email proved that Kapil was aware of the no-confidence motion.
So why did he deny to RNZ and others that it happened?
“As you know Rex and the mayor are at the LGNZ forum. The council will respond in due course,” was all the council offered in response to RNZ yesterday.
The council did not respond to questions about whether it was confident of the accuracy of its other media responses in recent months.
Kepil and Bell were in Wellington for the New Zealand Local Government Forum.
Parry was on vacation and Howell asked that any questions be emailed.
RNZ also contacted the councilor who initiated the motion of no confidence at the March 28 meeting.
“I’d like to talk to you and get the whole truth, but I’d like to make sure we don’t have any conflicts or any misunderstandings about anything that happens before the inspection. Until then, I can’t answer any of your questions,” Neville Phillips said when asked about the vote of no confidence in Bell.
Last week the council agreed to undertake a review to restore confidence in the council and to bring in LGNZ and Taituarā to assist with the terms of reference.
Wellington lawyer Linda Clarke will conduct the review and interview Bell, Howell, councillors, senior council leaders, members of the Mataura Community Council and local runang representatives.
It was expected to cost $130,000 and be completed by September at the latest.
The board will vote on the terms of reference at a special meeting next week, where a potential 11.5 percent rate hike will also be discussed.