{"id":7628,"date":"2023-09-04T17:46:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T05:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7628"},"modified":"2023-09-04T17:46:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T05:46:07","slug":"gore-district-council-chief-executive-stephen-parry-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7628","title":{"rendered":"Gore District Council chief executive Stephen Parry resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gore District Council’s embattled chief executive Stephen Parry has resigned after more than two decades in the job.<\/p>\n

It has been a fraught term for the local government stalwart ever since Ben Bell was elected as the district’s mayor – the country’s youngest ever at 23 – in last October’s local elections.<\/p>\n

Bell and Parry shared a frosty relationship, with RNZ revealing in March that the pair had not spoken in months and entered mediation in December, though the process quickly fell apart.<\/p>\n

The stand-off culminated in a group of councillors calling on the 24-year-old mayor\u00a0to resign<\/a>, while a ratepayer\u00a0started a petition<\/a>\u00a0calling for Parry to resign as chief executive in response.<\/p>\n

A statement from the council released on 21 June said Bell and the councillors had apologised to Parry and\u00a0agreed to work together<\/a>\u00a0going forward.<\/p>\n

RNZ understands it followed mediation process with Bell and Parry absent from a council policy and regulatory committee meeting on 20 June along with senior councillors Richard McPhail and Stewart MacDonell.<\/p>\n

RNZ also\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0last month the council had spent more than $11,000 on facilitation involving the councillors and mayor, in the hopes of restoring trust between the group.<\/p>\n

Parry tendered his resignation on Friday and would leave the role at the end of October.<\/p>\n

In a statement on behalf of the mayor and councillors, the intermediary for Parry and Bell appointed by the council in April – Councillor Richard McPhail – said the council was grateful to Parry for his work over the past 22 years.<\/p>\n

“He has been a champion for Gore and its ratepayers and a senior figure on Southland’s local government landscape,” McPhail said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Steve has a wealth of knowledge and is well respected in local government circles.”<\/p>\n

During his time in local government, Parry served as president of Taituar\u0101, when it was the Society of Local Government Managers, as well as the Australasian vice-president of ICMA, an international association for local government professionals.<\/p>\n

The council said in an email to staff today, Parry expressed his pride in serving as chief executive and the culture that has been forged at the council.<\/p>\n

“I leave with no regrets and a fair degree of excitement about what lies ahead,” it said.<\/p>\n

Parry planned to take time to reflect and set his priorities and challenges for 2024 and was looking forward to spending more time with his family, the council said.<\/p>\n

Bell said the council was hopeful Parry would assist with the transition to a new chief executive.<\/p>\n

“The process will take about six months, which means we will be looking to appoint an interim chief executive in due course,” he said.<\/p>\n

Recruitment for a chief executive would begin immediately.<\/p>\n

RNZ requested interviews with Bell, Parry, McPhail and deputy mayor Keith Hovell, but was told there would be no further comment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gore District Council’s embattled chief executive Stephen Parry has resigned after more than two decades in the job. It has been a fraught term for the local government stalwart ever since Ben Bell was elected as the district’s mayor – the country’s youngest ever at 23 – in last October’s local elections. Bell and Parry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7630,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7628\/revisions\/7630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}