The protesters, including Dame Sukhi Turner and Prue, Lady Wallis, of the Protect Wanaka Library group, voiced their opposition to changes the council was making to the library.
In the conference, Mr Feeley made two brief references to the protest - on one occasion describing it as an example of democracy at work.
He started his speech by saying for democracy to be effective it must be informed and the current review of services was about ''challenging everything we do''.
He gave as one example of the inefficiencies uncovered during the review a ''tough commercial developer'' who was ''virtually in tears'' because of a resource consent processing delay of 22 months, which cost him $200,000 in consultants' fees.
Another example was a five-year council contract for review that a staff member with the wrong skills was still negotiating, nine months after it had expired.
Mr Feeley recounted a conversation about the contract.
''[The staff member] said 'there's this half-million dollars, for administrative costs'.
''I said: 'So what exactly is that for?'.
''And he looked at me [and said] 'That's the cost of administration'.''
That example drew a big laugh from the 100 community board conference delegates.
Mr Feeley said the example gave him a ''deeply concerning insight'' into how the council was managing its costs. He said it was important to know the ''true cost'' of council services.
Outside the conference, Lady Wallis said the group expected Mr Feeley to ''hear what we ask'' - a delay in the process of making the changes so the council could establish what level of service the library was offering.
''They haven't established what the level of service is.''
Lady Wallis said by Thursday, the nine Wanaka library staff had to have applied for one of four jobs, only one of those positions being for a librarian.
