The Otago Daily Times understands Mayor Gary Kircher and chief executive Alex Parmley have been to formal mediation to realign their relationship.
It follows a tip-off about 10 days ago to the Otago Daily Times that all was not well.
Mr Parmley’s position is the sole role appointed by the elected council.
However, the supposed tension was made public via a social media post in Oamaru yesterday.
Mr Kircher replied "no comment" when asked to confirm if the pair had undergone formal mediation as a result of them not seeing eye to eye.
However, Mr Kircher said both he and Mr Parmley were focused on "doing the right thing, making the right decisions for the district".
"I’m for Alex getting on to make the council more productive, and I 100% support him for doing that," he said.
Mr Parmley said he would not respond to "gossip" when approached.
"It is not [the] council’s practice to comment on employment matters, rumours or gossip," he said in a statement.
But he conveyed a similar line to that of the mayor.
"The mayor, councillors and the chief executive are focused on delivering for the people of the Waitaki District," Mr Parmley said.
For months there have been grumblings at the council table.
Councillors have complained about getting timely information.
Mr Parmley has attributed delays to stretched staff resources due to the work being done internally to prepare for the council’s "transformation".
This week Mr Kircher told the Otago Daily Times that delays in tabling of previous meeting minutes, and getting staff reports in a timely fashion well before meetings was "ridiculous".
"I’m certainly hoping to see a lot more efficiency in how things are done — ideally minutes should be to me in two or three days," he said on Tuesday.
"Having them four months late is far from good practice.
"That is something we are trying to work through ... we want to make good decisions."
Yesterday the mayor would not confirm if that was one of the issues causing tension.
Three months ago the council started implementing its "transformation" programme.
This has meant most of 200-plus staff having to reapply for redefined jobs as part of a 9% reduction target under a reorganisation of council departments.
The transformation has been sold as about improving engagement with the Waitaki public through the streamlining and deployment of digital technology for "customers".
Mr Kircher said it has not been easy, but both he and Mr Parmley were "very focused on the future" for Waitaki.
"It’s a challenging time for the organisation, as you will know, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
"We’re getting on and doing that," he said yesterday.
