Petition to be presented to Gore's council despite Parry staying on as CEO

Friday, 27 October 2023

Stephen Parry will stay on as interim chief executive at the Gore District Council until a replacement is found. (File photo)

A petition calling for Stephen Parry to not be appointed as Gore District Council interim chief executive will still be presented to the council, despite the council confirming he is staying on in the job.

Petition organiser Hayden McIntyre said the petition would send a message to the council that Gore district residents were not happy with the decision.

The petition requests ‘’that Gore District Council decline to appoint Stephen Francis Parry as interim chief executive of Gore District Council, and rescind, revoke or replace these decisions made at the council meeting on 10 October 2023 proposed by councillor Bronwyn Reid”.

Parry resigned from the council last month and was due to finish work on Tuesday. He agreed to take the role of interim chief executive after deputy chief executive Rex Capil resigned to take up a senior role at Invercargill City Council.

Protesters outside Gore District Council on Tuesday afternoon.

McIntyre said the petition, which is being circulated by the newly-formed Gore District Citizen Action Group, would continue to be circulated until 9am on Monday morning, before it was presented to a councillor at a venue to be confirmed.

“It’s a way people in the community can voice their disapproval of the continued dysfunction in the council in relation to its chief executive,’’ he said.

“The signatures are of people in the community who are fed up with what’s going on in there and want to see the council have a fresh start and bring the community together.’’

Gore District Citizen Action group spokesperson Jack McIntyre talks about Protest outside Gore District Council on Tuesday afternoon

McIntyre said he would present the petition at a council meeting on Tuesday. As of Friday, it does not appear on the agenda.

Earlier this month the council voted nine to three to offer Parry the role while it looked for a new chief executive.

On Tuesday, at an extraordinary council meeting which was held in-committee, the council unanimously approved, in principle, key components of an agreement that would see Parry stay as interim chief executive.

More than 200 protesters gathered outside the Gore District Council building in support of mayor Ben Bell, and called on chief executive Stephen Parry to resign in April. (File photo)

The meeting drew a small group of protesters outside the council building, who urged councillors not to vote to offer Parry the interim position.

Another protest was held in April, when about 200 people gathered at the same spot after deputy mayor Keith Hovell and councillor Richard McPhail tabled a vote of no confidence in mayor Ben Bell, and a petition with 4000 signatures called for Parry to resign.

Both Bell and Parry survived, and the council voted for an independent review of its governance to take place to restore trust in the council.

That review had since been shelved, with councillors saying they had ‘’genuine concerns that any further re-examination of the past may reignite the very events and experiences that we seek to move on from’’.

In a statement last week, Hovell said the decision to appoint Parry to the interim position was ‘’a business decision, nothing more, nothing less’’.

“We are a small council and do not have the resources to fill, at short notice, the significant gaps that the departure of the chief executive and deputy chief executive would leave.”

The council will advertise for a new chief executive this week and hopes to interview potential candidates early in the new year.

The council has been plagued by controversy in the last year, with resignations, leaks from confidential meetings and a breakdown in the working relationship between Parry and Bell.