New councillor Robbie Byars, an Act New Zealand candidate, topped the spending at $17,598.69, and the political party chipped in $3648.04 for "campaign management, design services and delivery", his return showed.
New councillor Chanel Gardner was runner-up — recording a spend of $10,616.61, largely offset by two $5000 donations.
Returning Green Party councillor Alan Somerville said a $7021.27 donation from the party, equivalent to his costs, reflected expenses and fundraising shared between local Green candidates.
Council candidate expense and donation returns for October’s election were released last month.
Of the 22 candidate returns available online, 15 recorded expenses more than $2000 while two had no costs.
Population-based spending limits apply during the three-month period before an election — any earlier spending is only required to be recorded if it covers goods or services used during the campaign period.
A limit of $55,000 applies for Dunedin ward candidates. The limit is $40,000 in Dunstan, and $20,000 in Moeraki and Molyneux.
Donations of more than $1500 must be declared.
Cr Byars, elected in the Molyneux ward, said his competitors were all either current or former councillors with larger profiles than him.
As a dairy farmer, the election period fell during calving, his busiest time of year, and he was unable to attend as many events as a result, Cr Byars said.
"I just wanted to get my message out there as best as I could with the time available to me."
The five members of the Vision Otago ticket each recorded a $2000 donation from the Dunedin-based Niblick Trust.
Three were elected, including council chairwoman Hilary Calvert, who spent $7385.94 and recorded no other donations.
"You know what they say about advertising — half of it's useful, you just don't know which half", Cr Calvert said.
"I was part of a group spending. We were doing, as a group, what was appropriate.
"I'm happy enough about that amount for us on the whole."
She said the team provided a clear "manifesto" of its goals and values, and she had nothing further to add about the Niblick Trust.
Cr Somerville was part of a group spend of $29,865.45 between himself and three Dunedin City Council Green Party candidates.
He said campaign spending went through the Green Party’s Dunedin branch and candidates had no personal election expenses.
"Our fundraising all went into one pot and then the expenses were, with minor exceptions . . . sort of allocated evenly because they were spent evenly."
Following advice from the regional council’s deputy electoral officer, Cr Somerville recorded a $5076.00 donation from the party’s Dunedin branch and $1945.27 from the party office, but no expenses on his return.
"I guess the reasoning was that I personally didn't spend anything but all our campaign expenses went through the local branch and so has accounted for the donations.
"Even though there's a few pages of rules, they clearly are, in returns, interpreted a bit differently by different people", he said.
"But everything's all above board from our point of view."
Green Party candidate expenses were laid out clearly in city council returns.
Cr Somerville said candidates had made contributions to the shared pot. He declined to say how much he had put in.
Green Party-aligned candidate Elliot Weir, who unsuccessfully stood for re-election to the regional council, recorded $6487.72 spent and $6192.29 in donations, including $1945.29 from the party, but was not formally part of its team.
Meanwhile, Cr Andrew Noone was re-elected off the back of a zero-spend campaign.
Cr Noone said he felt voters would judge his track record and "took a punt".
"If my time was up, it was up and I would accept that", he said.
"At the back of my mind was that if I hadn't done a good enough job in the last period of time, I shouldn't be there.
"You look at it probably slightly differently than when you haven't had that opportunity, whether it's name recognition or whatever."
The expense return of unsuccessful candidate Phil Glassey, who died the week after the election, was not available online.
