The comments by City Forests chief executive Grant Dodson last week have prompted a complaint from Cr Jinty MacTavish and a ticking-off from Mayor Dave Cull.
Mr Dodson was not commenting on Friday, but last Tuesday he told the Otago Daily Times he believed the Government should abandon Kyoto, rather than commit to the next phase of the climate change treaty.
The Government was yet to decide whether to sign up for the next phase of Kyoto, but Mr Dodson went public to warn the extra costs could amount to "tens of millions" of dollars for City Forests and "hundreds of millions" across the forestry sector.
He believed the Government should instead refuse to sign up to the next iteration of the protocol, rather than be subjected to the new rule, while following other carbon-reduction initiatives.
Cr MacTavish took issue with the comments, telling the ODT it was "irresponsible and out of line" for the chief executive of a council-owned company to lobby the Government on policy matters.
She emailed Mr Cull and council chief executive Paul Orders on Thursday to complain about the comments, and Mr Cull confirmed when contacted the matter would be followed up.
Mr Cull shared her concern "issues of policy" were being raised by staff in the media.
The proper process would be for him to alert his board, and for the board to consider whether to raise it directly with its shareholder, the council, he said.
"It isn't appropriate for operational staff to be arguing and promoting and lobbying on issues of policy.
"It's not for him [Mr Dodson] to sound a warning to the public ...which cuts across the statements of intent of his company."
City Forests was among council-controlled organisations to present new statements of intent to the council earlier this year.
The statements required City Forests to act in an "environmentally responsible" way, while raising with the council any strategic or operational issues that conflicted with the council's community outcomes.
Cr MacTavish said Mr Dodson's comments were "out of line" in both cases, and should only have been raised by the company's board with the council.
"To extrapolate those concerns to advocating that the Government renege on its international climate change obligations or commitments - I feel that was unfortunate and out of line.
"It's a significant change that he is advocating for.
"It's not a minor change to policy."
She was also concerned by the content of his argument, when Kyoto offered "the only international agreement currently in place to address the urgent, serious global issue of climate change."
Mr Dodson was not the first staff member to be hauled over the coals after speaking publicly about contentious issues.
Last month, council city property manager Robert Clark was called in for a "frank discussion" with Mr Orders, the council chief executive, after revealing a possible hotel development not yet considered by councillors.
Mr Clark had at the time stressed the plans were yet to be confirmed and required council approval.
In 2010, council Tahuna upgrade manager Brian Turner was told not to speak to media after discussing possible delays to Dunedin's Tahuna wastewater treatment plant upgrade, later confirmed.
Mr Cull said he did not know what action, if any, would be taken against Mr Dodson.
"The result we would want from that is it didn't happen again."
