The council’s decision to discuss its "urgently required" response to a letter from Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor behind closed doors last week was not a unanimous one.
However, the decision has since been backed up by the Environment Minister.
Both Mr Parker and the council declined to release the letter in question to the Otago Daily Times.
A spokesman for Mr Parker said he would not release it "because it was a letter to the Otago Regional Council on a matter that is still under consideration".
Council chief executive Richard Saunders said on advice from the ministry the council could not release the letter "because it is subject to decisions which are yet to be made by Cabinet".
A farming leader from the area had not heard of the letter, nor the emergent policy, when contacted by the ODT.
Council chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson noted the late addition of the matter to the agenda at the latest council meeting.
"The matter is, the consideration of a letter from Ministers David Parker and Damien O’Connor related to the Upper Taieri scroll plain, and the reason that it can’t be delayed is that the minister has asked for a response, and that it’s an urgently required response," she said.
Cr Michael Laws said the council decision to conduct its "properly public business" in private was counter to the principles of openness and transparency under the Local Government Act that were supposed to inform council conduct.
At the meeting, he noted there was no legal opinion attached to the letter that required confidentiality.
He asked whether the ministers asked for the letter to be discussed in confidence.
The reply he received from Cr Robertson was "no".
"But it affects a number of things that we can’t talk about right now, really, what they do.
"But it’s, I guess, policy that’s being shaped up.
"It affects us, but it affects others as well.
"We can decide," she said.
As Cr Laws left the room in protest, she continued.
"We will have a vote on this matter, as always, that’s where the democracy comes in and the decision-making," Cr Robertson said.
After Cr Laws left the room, councillors voted to end the public part of the meeting and move into a public-excluded session.
Cr Bryan Scott voted no.
Asked if he wanted his vote recorded, he said, "No, not really, but I think we’ve got to have transparency."
The council describes the Upper Taieri scroll plain as a large natural wetland in the centre of the Maniototo and Styx Basins, with nationally and regionally significant landscape and biodiversity values.
