Gore district councillors had been poised to declare they had no confidence in the people’s choice of mayor.
They had shown clear intent to hobble his ability to be effective.
They were at their wits’ end and seemed to be unwittingly motivated by a desire to teach him a lesson, but it was them who got taken to school.
The Gore District Council has been given an emphatic lesson in the basics of democracy.
The conflict in Gore had been starting to shape as a contest between the council and the community.
What much of the community demanded was that Gore Mayor Ben Bell be given a fair go.
If the councillor commentary around yesterday’s truce can be believed — and it did look sincere — the 24-year-old mayor may now get it.
Yesterday’s extraordinary meeting was a clear win for Mr Bell.
A lesson that will presumably stay with him is the power of mobilising the public.
The case against the mayor has been vague and it has all been a bit cloak and dagger in Gore.
The unequivocal response from the public to the treatment of its elected leader gave the council genuine pause.
Yesterday, councillors seemed to be reasonable and decent, and they would be well advised to continue with this disposition.
There was contrition on both sides.
The voice of the community had lifted him.
The council united in passing a resolution to seek help from Local Government New Zealand and Taituarā (Local Government Professionals Aotearoa) to set terms of reference for an independent review aimed at renewing confidence in the council.
Mr Bell said it was clear the council was at the point "where we need some desperate help from the professionals to help us to manoeuvre through this".
Deputy mayor Keith Hovell emerged with credit.
Cr Hovell said he stood for council to benefit the community, but this had been compromised by poor behaviour and a lack of trust.
The steps he and other councillors took against Mr Bell had not been taken lightly, he said.
"People who know me know that I am conservative, know that I am averse to confrontation."
He did not go into any detail about the allegations of poor behaviour and councillors who only last week were calling for Mr Bell to resign signalled they now wanted to work with him.
Cr Glenys Dickson said the call for Mr Bell to resign, which she signed, was "more a cry for help".
"Ben, we are your allies.
"We are not your enemies."
Yet councillors had drifted so far from their moorings in the past week that they flirted with utterly undermining the independent review and jumping to conclusions before the review might carry out its work.
It should be noted councillors needed a lot of help from the public before they abandoned their arrogance.
They will not have the direct assistance of Mr Bell, as he will not be part of the chief executive’s appraisal committee.
The mayor’s backers, who showed up in force at the meeting, erupted in support as it became clear a vote of no confidence in Mr Bell had been abandoned.
It has emerged a deal was hammered out Monday afternoon.
In a joint statement, the elected members said they reunited following "an in-depth, transparent, and honest conversation".
"We have agreed that we all need to communicate more openly and effectively so there are no further misunderstandings that could lead to an irreparable breakdown in trust."
It became clear the councillors calling for blood had backed down when Mr Bell asked if any councillor wanted to move a motion expressing no confidence in him as mayor.
The chamber fell silent as none of the seven councillors who had called for his resignation last week said anything.
There was a cheer when a motion to remove Mr Bell from council committees did not receive any support.
Supporters of Mr Bell were delighted with how the meeting panned out.
Gore resident Donna-Marie Bryant (62) said she turned up to express opposition to injustice.
The mayor held himself well, she said.
Tania Scoles (56), who had lived in Gore all her life, said the council did a lot of back-pedalling and she was surprised by this, and happy.
