But the council says the apology has met the resolution councillors agreed on and so the code of conduct process is now finished.
The complaint was laid by Cr Marie Laufiso in November last year. She alleged Cr Vandervis had shown contempt for the council’s Te Pae Māori forum, as well as for mana whenua and mātāwaka.
After being found to have materially breached the code of conduct, councillors voted unanimously to ask Cr Vandervis to apologise, or risk possible censure.
In the apology, which he sent on the day it was due, Cr Vandervis said "causing offence was never my intention".
"I am sorry that some of my statements and actions as an elected representative have caused offence to some, for which I unreservedly apologise," he said.
Cr Vandervis said attempts were made to "coerce" him into making an unreserved apology by threatening to remove him from his chairmanship role of the finance and council-controlled organisations committee, which added close to $14,000 to his salary.
He also singled out multiple councillors as wanting to "penalise" him by removing him from this position.
Cr Vandervis ended the apology by rejecting claims of alleged racism and saying he had been caused reputational harm and the New Zealand Bill of Rights provided him with "all the defence I need" against code of conduct accusations.
"With the negative attendant publicity that I have incurred, I submit that my apology as above now brings to an end the current code of conduct process," he said.
A council spokesman said any next steps were a matter for elected representatives.
But external legal advice had confirmed the apology met the council’s resolution, and therefore the code of conduct process was concluded, he said.
However, Cr David Benson-Pope said Cr Vandervis’ statement "clearly does not meet the requirements of the unanimous decision of council" and he planned to discuss the legal advice with the lawyers and others in due course.
"I don’t think it’s an apology, I think it’s a statement and that’s nothing new — that’s what he does.
"There was a clear request from council and it wasn’t met, and I think most people reading what council asked for and what’s been provided would come to that conclusion."
Cr Sophie Barker said the apology did fulfil the requirements under the code of conduct, and it was great that its terms were being reviewed.
"We need to stand up as councillors to hold each other to account when those standards are breached as was clearly done in this case," Cr Barker said
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said Cr Vandervis had provided "a legally acceptable apology that satisfies the resolutions of council", and so the code of conduct process was now concluded.
"I expect that we can now move forward while upholding the standards of behaviour our community expects of all elected representatives."
Cr Carmen Houlahan labelled the code of conduct complaints "a waste of ratepayer money" and a situation where nobody won.
"We need to move on and govern our city."
Cr Christine Garey called Cr Vandervis’ statement "a Clayton’s apology, in my view".
Cr Mandy Mayhem said that she struggled with the behaviour of Cr Vandervis and found his apology "insincere".
"Particularly how focused he seems on loss of income around his chair’s role and very little about the good governance.
"According to him this is the end of the code of conduct process.
"It is unfortunate that there is not anything stronger we can do."
Cr Marie Laufiso declined to comment.
A report by investigator Jordan Boyle found Cr Vandervis breached the code by refusing to attend Te Pae Māori meetings; referring to having mana whenua representatives on two council committees as anti-democratic and race-based representation; and for statements made in an email in July last year.
The cost of investigating the code breach was $11,680.
