After the elections, the 29-year-old Alexandra valuer may trade places with her father, Graeme (62), who is stepping down after serving 21 years as a community board member in Alexandra.
Miss Bell is standing for the Alexandra ward of the Vincent Community Board while her father, who has also served 21 years as a Central Otago district councillor, is switching his attention to the Otago Regional Council.
He is one of seven candidates for three places on the regional council's Dunstan constituency. Both are proud of their family record in local politics but Mr Bell said the family legacy was not so much politics but ''that our family have always been community-minded''.
His grandfather, Hec Kemp, served two terms on the Alexandra Borough Council and his father, Bob Bell, was an Alexandra borough councillor for four terms.
''I'm standing because I really love Alexandra, more than a driving need to follow in the family's footsteps, but I guess that has had an influence on how I feel towards serving my community in some way,'' Miss Bell said.
Mr Bell, a wool representative for PGG Wrightson, was also a member of the Otago Central Electric Power Board and went on to became an inaugural trustee of the Central Lakes Trust, a role he will retiring from this year.
He was a little sad to be leaving the community board and district council, he said ''but I guess I felt I needed to go up the to the next level''.
''I just felt that I had been there that long and it was probably time for someone else to get blooded there''.
The Neill family, of Otago Peninsula, are also keeping a strong family involvement in local body politics alive.
Sam Neill, who has been in local body politics since the 1980s, is standing again for the Otago Regional Council, his wife Christine is standing for the Otago Peninsula Community Board and son Kevin is standing for the city council, in the Dunedin central ward.
''We're all in there doing our bit.''
Mr Neill (65) said there was a bit of a family tradition. His brother Alec was a former Environment Canterbury chairman and sister Carrie a mayor of a small town in Australia.
For his son, who works for CRT, it was a concern for `balancing the books'' that led him to stand with firsthand knowledge of the commitment such roles demand.
''Both me and dad would like to see a greater relationship between the Dunedin City Council and the ORC. It's one of the reasons I decided to stand for the city council.''
