Gore district's new mayor Ben Bell has lost a bid for his own executive assistant.
New Gore mayor Ben Bell has been told stick to the basics as he had his request for his own executive assistant declined at council. Photo: Supplied / Facebook
Councillors called out the request as a luxury, and reminded Bell that he campaigned on going back to basics.
He chaired his first council meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
An executive assistant role to help the chief executive and mayor was created earlier this year, but Bell wanted dedicated support.
He made a short pitch for an executive assistant, saying by providing more support for him, he could help others in turn.
"As many people know I've had my own personal assistant helping me out in the interim. I was, you know, heavily affected by media and things being thrown at me," Bell said.
"I didn't think it was fair on the joint assistant of both myself and the chief executive. It also pulls that resource away from the chief executive."
Councillor Bret Highsted immediately sought to move a motion to decline the request, saying the mayor already had access to the shared assistant.
"You campaigned on back to basics and eliminating vanity projects, and I was part of the council that undertook some of the vanity projects.
"So I have to say this role could be viewed as your own personal vanity project."
The new role was estimated to cost between $70,000 and $85,000 a year.
Councillor Glenys Dickson acknowledged the mayor's workload, but said she couldn't justify the cost.
"It's not just the wage, there's also superannuation, there's training, there's travel and other costs there.
"And in this climate, when everyone's feeling things are quite tight, it's actually another 0.4 percent on our rates."
Councillor Richard McPhail said he understood the mayor faced increased media interest.
But between the council's communications team and the shared executive assistant, he didn't believe the new role was necessary.
"It is a luxury item. Our other brother and sister councils around the countryside that surrounds us don't have that opportunity so I won't be supporting that."
Councillor Robert McKenzie said there was a need for better support.
"I believe because of your age and there's a lot of us here are newbies, you may have needed a bit of extra assistance at the start. I know it is available and things just didn't go the right way."
Once it was put to a vote, the request was denied.
