Ms Simmonds says she never promised to show up to a meeting with councillors last month and took issue this week with a statement by council chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson, who said the meeting Ms Simmonds missed was "at the invitation of the Minister for the Environment".
"Unfortunately, the highlighted statement is not correct," a spokeswoman for the minister said this week.
"The meeting was not organised by the minister or the office of Hon Penny Simmonds, but rather by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE).
"The meeting invitation was sent from the calendar of an official from the Ministry for the Environment.
"So, while the minister was tentatively scheduled to be involved briefly at the start of the meeting, due to an extended Question Time, the House ran longer than expected.
"Unfortunately, this meant that the minister missed the scheduled 15-minute slot for her introductory comments at the beginning of the meeting."
The spokeswoman called for the public record to be corrected and an apology.
In response, Cr Robertson provided the Otago Daily Times with a letter she received in December from RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Ms Simmonds outlining the next steps in how councillors might be engaged in the work now under way to replace the national policy statement for freshwater management. Cr Robertson said the letter "may provide context".
"There is a note regarding the administrative process to set up ‘direct engagement with councillors’ and that ‘ministers would consider how best they could be involved in this engagement once the details have been sorted’," Cr Robertson said.
"We were invited to an MfE-hosted meeting.
"It was understood that Minister Simmonds hoped to join the meeting at the beginning to speak to councillors.
"Minister Simmonds became busy in Parliament and was unable to attend on the day; this is very understandable given her busy schedule.
"We appreciated the chance to meet with ministry staff and welcome opportunities to continue to build relationships with both the ministers and ministries on behalf of Otago."
Last year, councillors and the minister were involved in a stand-off as notification of the council's contentious land and water plan neared.
Ms Simmonds, among other ministers, urged the council to pause work on the plan while the government re-wrote the underpinning NPSFM in its resource management reforms.
A majority of seven councillors consistently voted against pausing work on the plan before Ms Simmonds ultimately intervened and, at the 11th hour, prevented the council from voting to notify the plan.
Cr Michael Laws, who called last month’s meeting a "waste of time" without the minister present, this week provided a screenshot from his calendar that showed councillors had been invited to an "NPSFM engagement meeting" by an MfE official titled "ORC with Minister Simmonds and MfE officials".
Further, he provided an email from council planning and transport general manager Anita Dawe who said she had been contacted by MfE officials "to advise that Minister Simmonds would like to invite you to an online session to provide feedback".
Cr Kevin Malcolm said councillors were told Ms Simmonds’ attendance was dependent on her parliamentary demands.
"The MfE were clear on the steps to formulate the new policy, and I believe gave those of us who had done their homework a very good hearing.
"We were extremely fortunate to get this opportunity considering that seven of our council had refused to listen to the minister’s instruction."
Cr Tim Mepham said he believed MfE officials were instructed to consult with ORC councillors and staff as "an attempt to minimise the political damage caused by the unprecedented action government took in preventing the notification of the ORC land and water management plan in October last year".
"It was helpful the minister didn’t turn up to a meeting she wasn’t that interested in. It enabled those at the meeting to get on with a discussion without 20 minutes of ‘political preamble’."
