Then at a Grey Power candidates meeting that featured roughly 20 council candidates on Tuesday, each and every one of them said they want to re-consult with the Napier community over the pool.
Onekawa-Tamatea ward candidate Richard McGrath joked the other candidates must have picked up his flyer on the way through the door.
"I've got the same list of priorities as everybody else has got, I'd argue that they all read my pamphlet on the way in."
The Grey Power meeting would suggest that even if there are future councillors out there who don't want to re-consult on the pool, they're unlikely to be in the majority on a new council.
And that's without mentioning a pending court case that could force NCC to re-consult.
In reality, it was only the slimmest of majorities that got it over the line in the first place.
Acting mayor Faye White, who isn't restanding, had the casting vote after a 6-6 tie, an even number of councillors forced by mayor Bill Dalton's absence after his serious stroke.
Since then we've learned that before the vote, the six Napier councillors who opposed the pool had their Facebook pages monitored by senior council staff looking for code of conduct breaches.
Emails show Jack ordered staff to compile a dossier of Facebook posts by councillors Maxine Boag, Richard McGrath and Kirsten Wise in the lead up to an earlier pool vote in December.
Now, the "renegades", as they are described in the email trail obtained by RNZ, look set to rise to power.
And with that rise, the chance that the current works on Prebensen Drive will ever evolve into a world-class aquatic centre takes a big dive.
History would suggest that renegades don't tend to change their votes to side with those they now see as the enemy (Jack).
It would take a huge upswell of support for the new aquatic centre from the people of Napier to change the renegades' minds.
And from what I've heard and read about the pool plan during the past year from Napier residents, that seems unlikely.
