Environment Southland chairman Stuart Collie has confirmed he received calls from Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin and Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Cairns last week, just days before he announced his chief executive had pulled out of speaking at this week's Stop the Stadium meeting.
On Friday, Mr Collie announced in a press release council chief executive Ciaran Keogh had decided not to speak at the March 29 meeting and that his recent anti-stadium opinion piece in the Otago Daily Times was not written in his professional capacity.
The article should have been made in Mr Keogh's private capacity as an individual and an Otago ratepayer, Mr Collie said.
An email circulated by a Stop the Stadium member yesterday suggested Mr Chin and Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry were pressuring speakers to not appear at the meeting, and that Mr Chin and Mr Farry had "had a go" at Mr Collie and then called every Environment Southland councillor to get them to pressure Mr Keogh to withdraw from the meeting.
Both Mr Chin and Mr Farry denied the allegations last night.
Mr Collie said last night Mr Chin rang him on Wednesday last week and Mr Cairns rang him the following day.
"They were concerned that, as [Mr Keogh's] title was used in the ODT piece, it appeared as though he was speaking on behalf of the council."
He declined to comment on whether either man specifically asked him to ask Mr Keogh to pull out of the upcoming meeting.
When contacted, Mr Chin said he "absolutely" made no comment to Mr Collie on the appropriateness of Mr Keogh speaking at the meeting.
He had called to express his concerns about the appropriateness of the chief executive of one council speaking about another council's business.
"I did not speak to Mr Farry, nor any of the councillors of Environment Southland."
Mr Cairns declined to elaborate on what he discussed with Mr Collie with regards to Mr Keogh.
"I had a personal conversation with the chair of Environment Southland, which we do regularly."
He had not initiated any contact with any other councillor, he said.
None of the Environment Southland councillors spoken to last night had received calls from Mr Chin, Mr Cairns, Mr Farry or any other person with regards to Mr Keogh.
Dunedin businessman Alistair Broad, who is speaking at the March 29 meeting, said Mr Farry had invited him to a meeting to discuss the project and he had found it a useful information-sharing exercise.
He was not in a position to be pressured as Mr Keogh had been, Mr Broad said.
Mr Farry said he had never suggested to anyone they should not be appearing at the town hall meeting, even though some of the people involved were well known to him.
"Any suggestion I have put pressure on anybody is an absolutely lie and I feel very strongly about that."
If he had met them, their meetings were private and he would not discuss them publicly, Mr Farry said.
