Ben Bell, the country’s youngest mayor with no political experience, was put to the test when Gore district councillors gathered for their inaugural and first ordinary meeting on Tuesday.
About 30 members of the public sat in on the meeting.
Unlike former mayor Tracy Hicks, Mr Bell did not lead with a prayer as he did not have one prepared, but said he would in the future.
Still getting to grips with all the processes, he told the Otago Daily Times after the meeting that he gave his performance "a three or four out of 10".
"It's not my best work, I'll be honest. But onwards and upwards from here.
"I’ll be well-versed on standing orders with my next meeting and a bit stricter in terms of, you know, keeping to time limits and making sure that everyone gets a say."
He did find the meeting "pretty exciting", despite its lengthiness.
"To be fair, we did have two meetings packed together and there were some pretty big issues.
"There was pretty good discussion around the table, which was fantastic to see."
Among the issues discussed was his request for a personal assistant, which was not supported by his fellow councillors who saw it as an unnecessary expense, with Cr Bret Highsted calling it a "vanity project."
Mr Bell said he had requested a personal assistant because of all the extra media attention he was getting as the country’s youngest mayor.
"Whether I think it's my own personal vanity project, I think that's a bit out of order. But that's a councillor’s feelings and so, you know, I've got to take those on board."
Despite taking a bit of heat over the issue, Mr Bell said he had been prepared to discuss it.
"It was addressed by councillors that maybe we shouldn't be discussing that, but I actually did want to. You’ve got to be transparent. Even if I lost it, which obviously happened, it was still out in the open, rather than behind closed doors.
"So although that’s bad media for me, at least it’s honest media."
It was also why he did not move the meeting into public exclusion and had the discussion of some items postponed, including the establishment of his new committee structure.
"We can actually take our time with these things. It's not an urgent decision that needs to be made.
"I wanted to get something on paper, but with the concerns raised by councillors and also staff, we just wanted to give ourselves more time."
Resourcing, costs and incoming reforms were still factors that needed to be considered, he said.
"[Also] we are waiting on a report from the council ... which will give us a bit of an idea of where the council's actually at."
The new committee structure will be discussed at the next full council meeting, scheduled to take place on December 13.
