The political coup hanging over the Gore District Council has taken another twist with the Government saying intervention is highly unlikely.
Eight councillors asked for Mayor Ben Bell's resignation after a relationship breakdown with the chief executive.
Council will vote on three resolutions, including writing to the Local Government Minister for help. But they appear to have their answer.
Kieran McAnulty, the lead minister for Hawke's Bay cyclone recovery, was on hand to clean up on Sunday. But as Local Government Minister, he won't get involved in Gore's political mess.
"At the moment, Gore Council is meeting its statutory requirements so as per the Act spells out, there's no need for me to step in," he said.
Councillors are due to vote on Tuesday to pass three resolutions. One of those is writing to the Minister asking for a meeting to talk about intervention.
"I'll read the letter before I decide on what I'm going to do there but the important thing is that a relationship breakdown doesn't warrant a specific intervention from the Government."
Earlier this week, eight councillors, including the Deputy Mayor, asked Bell, the country's youngest mayor at 23, to resign.
They collectively said: "The majority of councillors had lost confidence in the mayor" and "lost trust in the mayor acting in the best interests of the community."
Bell's time at the top didn't start convincingly. He won the election by just eight votes.
He ousted the incumbent of 18 years Tracy Hicks who was declined a recount.
"I would've thought that with the costs falling on the applicant there's no downside in the system going through and doing that recount," Hicks said at the time.
In December, just a month into the job, the relationship between the Mayor and chief executive Stephen Parry began to fracture. They could no longer work together and earlier this year an intermediary had to be appointed.
"We may not be super friendly but we can still do our roles," Bell said in April.
"It's very strained and I think that's a suitable encapsulation," Parry said.
On Tuesday, Council will also act to pass a vote of no confidence and remove the Mayor from all committees, tightening the political pressure and trying to force him to resign.
"I have no thoughts about resigning at this point in time, it's ultimately up to the community, if I had an outpour from the community asking for my resignation, sure," Bell said in April.
So far, it's only a chorus of his own councillors asking him to go.
