Cr Lee Vandervis calmly packed up and left after he was on the wrong end of a series of rulings about points of order at a meeting yesterday.
The first objection came when Cr Vandervis described "colourless shades of a grey set of tiles", which had "poor porous quality".
Cr Mandy Mayhem said this was misleading and the grey tiles were for the visually impaired.
Infrastructure services committee chairman Jim O’Malley upheld the point of order for "misrepresentation" because the blocks were not inferior.
When Cr Vandervis said he was giving voice to the people he represented, describing a project that was "overly expensive", this prompted a point of order from Cr Kevin Gilbert.
Cr Vandervis was at the table to represent all ratepayers, Cr Gilbert said.
Cr O’Malley agreed and Cr Vandervis pointed out "I am representing every member of this community when I voice the opinions of the vast majority of those that I speak with".
Cr O’Malley highlighted Cr Vandervis was not entitled to argue about rulings.
Cr Vandervis objected that he had been misrepresented, because he had been dedicated to "getting out and getting people’s opinions".
His point of order was not upheld by Cr O’Malley, because "she said you should get more opinion".
That was the final straw for Cr Vandervis and he left the meeting.
During the rest of the discussion, councillors pointed out council staff and contractors had been abused over the project.
They highlighted it had been completed within the capital budget of about $105 million.
The Otago Daily Times was also criticised for an inaccurate headline in last Saturday’s paper relating to the upgrade.
