Twelve months later, on his final day as interim chief executive, Dr Borren said the fallout from two "quite public" inquiries forced the council to refocus.
He said yesterday he believed he was leaving the role with the council in a better place than when he started.
"It was in a total mess," Dr Borren said yesterday.
"In terms of the relationship between governance and management, it was at rock bottom."
Dr Borren arrived at the council last year after the departure of former chief executive Sarah Gardner in May.
At the end of June, retired High Court Judge Sir Graham Panckhurst issued a report that underlined the relationship between senior staff and councillors was "unwell, if not broken".
Then weeks later, in a separate investigation, Prof Peter Skelton found senior staff believed councillors were trying to trip up staff, delay decision-making and were unwilling to accept staff advice.
Dr Borren said his initial focus had been to put the two inquiries to bed, and to repair the relationship between council governance and management.
"That relationship actually is key for any organisation," he said.
"It makes a huge difference for staff. It means that instead of us being in the newspaper having that relationship reported negatively - and the inquiries were both for good reason - we end up really focusing on the reason we are here, which is to do the job we are paid to do by ratepayers, which is to support the protection and enhancement of the environment."
Now, he was proud of the changed perception of the organisation in the region, and of each department maintaining its work programme.
Transport had been very challenging "for obvious reasons", but it had been challenging all over New Zealand.
He said he had not been afraid to "front up" and apologise to ratepayers for the inconvenience of a reduced bus timetable.
"I haven’t been frightened to admit to making mistakes.
"The organisation had sort of got so beaten up by its own governance that everyone was frightened of admitting to making mistakes.
"You can’t have an organisation that’s scared of making mistakes.
"I’ve made some myself, and I am happy to admit them, and to apologise for them.
"And slowly but surely, I saw that culture coming back where people are prepared to not try and hide things from governance, but accept the fact that we don’t always get it right.
"I’ve really loved working for ORC. I’ve loved living in Dunedin. I literally looked forward to coming into my office every day."
He is replaced today by the new chief executive, Richard Saunders.
But Dr Borren is not leaving the council just yet.
He took on a role as transport general manager for the next six months in a part-time position, to try to support public transport as it emerged from "a perfect storm".
"We can improve both the perception around our buses, but also the reality, and that’s what I’ll be working on - only for six months."
