Dowling contacted the Otago Daily Times yesterday to announce his resignation.
The 59-year-old was last month convicted of assaulting a woman after returning home from the pub, and sentenced to six months’ supervision.
The common assault charge carried a maximum sentence of one year’s jail, not enough to trigger immediate disqualification from standing as an elected member under local governance law.
At the board’s Thursday meeting, fellow member Norma Emerson called for a vote of no confidence in Dowling, a motion supported by Cr Christine Garey.
However, the board’s other members — chairman Barry Williams and members Joan Wilson, Jock Frew and Jacinta Stevenson — voted against the motion. Dowling was absent. The vote was followed by a call for his resignation by Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and West Harbour Community Board chairman Steve Walker.
"I’m resigning as of now," Dowling told the ODT yesterday.
"That’s it. I’m resigning."
He did not wish to comment further yesterday, but said he would possibly release a statement after consulting a lawyer.
The resignation would trigger a by-election under the Local Electoral Act.The election which returned Dowling as a member of the board took place only last October.
Mr Cull said Dowling’s resignation was the right move.
"As I indicated in my statement on Friday, resignation is the right thing to do and all credit to Mr Dowling for doing that."
He did not wish to comment further. Mrs Emerson said she was pleased by the outcome.
"All I can say is I’m relieved," she said.
"This should have happened some time ago. It would have avoided a lot of the division that’s currently in the community and we could have got on with more important things, but now we can hopefully get back to business.
"Unfortunately, it got up to this stage but now we can let the healing begin in the town."
Mrs Emerson had earlier indicated she would not be present at any further meetings of the board this year and might resign, after her motion was voted down.
Yesterday she softened her stance, saying Dowling’s resignation had left open the possibility of her remaining on the board and returning to the table this year.
"I will rethink my options."
The board voted at Thursday’s meeting to direct all comment about the matter to Dunedin City Council
strategy and governance general manager Sandy Graham.Attempts to contact Ms Graham yesterday were unsuccessful.
It was unclear when the by-election would take place.
