At a recent meeting, Cr Michael Deaker described one of the agreement points as "meaningless rubbish" that gave local government-speak a bad name.
The regional council was being asked to sign off on the wording of the 2010-13 agreement between the Central Otago, Clutha, Dunedin City, Queenstown Lakes District, Waitaki District Councils and itself, so it could go out to those councils for similar approval.
It said the purpose of the agreement was to encourage communication, co-ordination and co-operation between the region's local authorities and outlined its scope and protocols for communication and co-operation.
Cr Deaker asked that the point "to provide enhanced clarity as to the responsibilities between the Otago Regional Council and other Otago councils giving a seamless local government service" be removed from the agreement or re-worded to "save embarrassment".
"It's an appalling piece of writing ... it should be put in plain English so I can understand roughly what it says."
Cr Duncan Butcher said he took exception to the comments as the clause was quite clear to him.
"The terms used there ... are not uncommon terms I see in referring to the relationship between councils."
Chief executive Graeme Martin said the clause was meant to indicate that district or city councils needed to have an understanding of the regional council's role, as in the past there had been differences of opinion on issues such as landscape, dust and sedimentation.
Having an understanding of what each council was going to do, and why, would provide "seamless" local government, he said.
Under the new agreement, meetings of the mayors and regional chairman and their chief executives would be held every three months, instead of every six months as was past practice, and be called the Otago Mayoral Forum.
Chairman Stephen Woodhead said the aim of the more frequent meetings was to reinvigorate the forum and make it more effective.
Meetings of the chief executives of the councils would also take place every three months instead of six.
The agreement was signed off by councillors without any changes but with a proviso that small changes could be made to it if required by the other councils.
