Southern Partnership Group chairman Andrew Blair also says he is being kept informed about the project he is leading, despite documents released under the Official Information Act that indicate otherwise.
Late last year Wellington officials called a halt on the long-signalled upgrade of the Dunedin physio pool, documents released this month show.
Officials want to keep their options open because the pool is on the hospital campus, which means the upgrade faces a long delay until decisions are made about the rebuild.
Before they were sacked, board members had agreed in principle to a pool lease, which they believed would not affect the $300 million hospital rebuild.
Mr Blair, of Hawke's Bay, backed the officials' actions.
"Although there are views which may well prove to be correct that the location of the pool won't impact on our options, at this point we aren't able to rule anything in or out, so we've asked the DHB to be mindful of that,'' Mr Blair told the Otago Daily Times.
The documents show officials "urgently'' trying to resolve the pool lease issue in January, at the same time Mr Blair told the ODT he was unaware of any problem concerning the pool's location and the hospital rebuild.
The ODT had been trying to discover why the upgrade had been abruptly postponed, and why no lease had been agreed.
Contacted last week, Mr Blair blamed the holiday season for not knowing about the physio pool problem.
"We have been kept informed, you might say that it was too late, but actually nothing happened that compromised our role ... it is an operational matter.''
Asked if the Ministry of Health was running the rebuild, he said: "Not at all.''
The community raised $1.2 million for the upgrade and running costs. The Otago Therapeutic Pool Trust has had to seek time extensions on some grants, and the delay will mean some additional expense.
"I would hope that relationships haven't been damaged. There will inevitably be tensions throughout this project between various interest groups because to achieve what we're wanting to achieve long-term for the community, some things will change,'' Mr Blair said.
"And along the way there will be people who will have feelings about that.
"I would ask that people keep an eye on the long-term vision and the best possible outcome and there will be some need to adapt or compromise along the way, but it will be for a greater good.''
Asked if the group was well connected to Dunedin, given only one of its members is based in the South, he said that was "very unfair''.
"There are a lot of people that aren't in Dunedin or the Otago region at the moment who are putting an awful lot of effort and expertise into something to benefit that region that they don't live in.
"I'm very aware of local feelings, and [the ODT is] good at keeping me informed about it as well.''
