In a story published last month, recently appointed deputy mayor Nobby Clark said there were factions within the Invercargill City Council, and stated that councillors Ian Pottinger, Rebecca Amundsen and Darren Ludlow wanted to be mayor, which created "a little bit of an issue."
During an infrastructure council meeting today, Cr Clark offered his public apologies to his colleagues.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to offer my apologies. During recent media commentary regarding the mayor and his performance, I stated to the ODT a view that three of my colleagues had had some impact on that. On reflection, that statement was inappropriate."
The three councillors thanked Cr Clark for his apologies, before the meeting continued.
The apologies comes amid a probe into the council by the Department of Internal Affairs, which has raised concerns about "significant conflict".
An urgent Invercargill City Council meeting at which councillors would be briefed on the independent evaluation to assess its standard of governance had to be postponed last week due to a family bereavement.
A council spokeswoman confirmed the meeting was rescheduled for Thursday when independent evaluator Richard Thomson and council independent governance adviser Bruce Robertson will talk to councillors about their review of the council’s governance.
She said that after the briefing, feedback would be sought from elected members about the report and the recommendations, which the evaluators would present.
The report would be finalised then considered formally by the full council.
