Dunedin City Council-owned company Delta confirmed on Thursday it would be cutting up to 13 of its staff after the council split the city's parks maintenance contract in half.
Under the new arrangement, Delta, which was previously contracted for work across the whole city, picked up the contract for the northern half of the city, with Christchurch City Council-owned City Care taking the southern half.
Mr Cull backed that decision on Friday.
"The council is in a position where there is a possibility of criticising it either way,'' Mr Cull said.
"Because if we just automatically gave the contract to Delta, we would be quite rightly accused of not testing the market and getting the best outcome,'' Mr Cull said.
Ultimately, the council should go with the option which presented "the best value for ratepayers''.
"The ratepayers ultimately own Delta and it would be good for the profit to go back to them, but there is too many dangers in not testing [the market].''
Council group chief financial officer Grant McKenzie confirmed on Friday that no weighting was given to local ownership as part of the tendering process for the parks maintenance contract.
Council parks, recreation and aquatics group manager Richard Saunders said the way the new parks contracts were being managed was more rigorous than in the past.
"We are introducing independent audits as part of these contracts, which we have not done previously,'' he said.
"This will support auditing undertaken by staff and provide an increased level of robustness.''
The changes were not introduced because of past failings, but it was felt the new contracts would provide a greater level of transparency for the council and the community.
"They will also provide us with data on our assets, which will help with planning and decision-making in the future.''
City Care is advertising for positions to fill its contract, but has declined to respond to questions from the Otago Daily Times.
