A statement issued by Gore District Council yesterday said chief executive Stephen Parry accepted Mayor Ben Bell and the councillors’ apology for breaching his privacy earlier this year.
All parties were working to rebuild trust, put their differences behind them and get on with "the important business of local government", it said.
Neither Mr Bell nor Mr Parry picked up the phone when the Otago Daily Times called last night.
A council spokeswoman said the privacy breach elected members apologised for came out of a March 28 public-excluded meeting and related to Mr Parry’s legal expenses.
A local government academic said the council statement was hard to believe.
Mr Bell, elected as a 23-year-old by an eight-vote margin, has been in the spotlight since his predecessor, six-term mayor Tracy Hicks, called for a recount, declined by District Court Judge Kevin Kelly after a hearing in November.
Then, at the March 28 meeting, it was revealed there had been a breakdown in the relationship between Mr Bell and Mr Parry, such that an intermediary had been required.
Minutes from the meeting, previously released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, said the relationship between Mr Parry and Mr Bell "had not run smoothly" following the election.
By December, a mediator had been brought in to develop a "road map" forward.
"The content of the road map is confidential and it was not appropriate for that document to be subject to review by the council," the minutes said.
There was one matter in the document that required the consideration of the council though — the payment of legal fees incurred by Mr Parry, it said.
The following three lines were blacked out.
Citing unsustainable anxiety, six-term councillor Bret Highsted, who reportedly had a fraught relationship with Mr Bell, resigned from the council the following week.
About 10 days later deputy mayor Keith Hovell said confidential information from the March 28 meeting was leaked and called for an independent review.
By last month, the majority of councillors called for Mr Bell (now 24) to resign — they subsequently backed down.
As June began, a petition asking for Mr Parry’s resignation, apparently signed by more than 4800 people, emerged.
It was rejected by the council.
The council statement issued yesterday said councillors and Mr Bell had made mistakes over the past several months, including breaching Mr Parry’s privacy.
"The council wishes to acknowledge that errors have been made during this discourse, which has had a detrimental impact on Mr Parry’s reputation and wellbeing," the statement said.
"The elected members wish to acknowledge and apologise for the hurt caused to the chief executive.
"They sincerely regret the breach of the chief executive’s privacy earlier this year, which triggered public and significant media attention on Mr Parry, causing significant harm to him, his family and his reputation."
It said over "many months" there had been numerous media stories about relationships between the mayor, the chief executive and councillors at the council.
"This media attention has caused significant disruption, distress and hurt to the chief executive, staff and councillors.
"This has undermined various relationships and our community’s confidence in its council, and has detracted from the important business the council is required to undertake for its community."
The council affirmed in its statement that Mr Parry was a skilled and experienced local government chief executive, who had "created a strong management team around him who are all supportive of him as their leader".
Curtin University adjunct research fellow Dr Andy Asquith said reading the council statement had him rolling his eyes.
"It’s almost as if [Mr] Parry has told council what to say," Dr Asquith said.
"The idea that the mayor’s got full confidence in him is just nuts.
"And then to blame the media — you’re responsible for all the mess — that doesn’t stack up to analysis when you look at what happened.
"All you did was report the children falling out.
"The more I hear about the individuals involved and from what I know about local government full stop, this is a mess.
"I am completely confident that it will end badly.
"I don’t think any of the people involved have got the desire or the ability to resolve it."
