The spat has stemmed from assertions by mayoral candidate Cr Andrew Whiley and outgoing councillor Hilary Calvert they were left on the outer by a group with a majority at the council table, not invited to informal meetings and were unable to get their ideas heard.
But Green mayoral candidate Cr Aaron Hawkins said those assertions were untrue, and were being used to explain why the councillors had been unable to achieve more in the last three years.
And a councillor identified as being one of a ''bloc'' that voted the same way said that had not been the case.
Cr Hawkins wrote on his Facebook page yesterday, following the publication of an Otago Daily Times candidate feature on Cr Whiley, the issue '' needs clearing up''.
He said there were plenty of informal meetings, where anyone could bring issues to the table for discussion.
''Second, anyone can put forward a motion for council to debate at any point, get the support of seven others, and make it happen.
''It's what I (and others) have done over the past three years, and it is what an effective representative looks like.
''For Cr Whiley to paint his lack of success as a conspiracy theory, rather than an inability to articulate alternatives and get support for them, is as disingenuous as it is desperate.''
Cr Whiley, spokesman for ProGas Otago, which lobbied for gas exploration off the Otago coast, responded: ''Unfortunately you will never agree with much of what I say or do, but at least I always acknowledge your points of view.''
He referred to his plans for a green technology hub, and to promote green energy.
Cr Hawkins then criticised Cr Whiley for not addressing the issue.
Cr Hawkins told the Otago Daily Times yesterday it seemed to be a common theme of councillors ''some departing and some seeking re-election'' they had been entirely shut out of the agenda-setting process.
He noted Cr Whiley was deputy chairman of economic development.
Suggestions there was ''an inner cabal'' were untrue, and it was unfortunate people would get that impression.
''It concerns me that message is getting out there.''
Cr Whiley, responded yesterday anybody watching the council in the last three years would have seen ''any vote of any consequence was always going to be beaten by the bloc''.
He said the ''bloc'' had been former Greater Dunedin members Mayor Dave Cull and Crs Richard Thomson, Kate Wilson, Chris Staynes and Jinty MacTavish, as well as Crs David Benson-Pope, Aaron Hawkins and Neville Peat.
''The only time they broke up was when it wasn't really essential to any of their ideas, or it wasn't going to win.''
Cr Whiley said there were ideas he could have put on the table, but they ''would never have got across the line'' because they would have been blocked.
''The rest of us were pretty much left out on our own.''
Asked if a majority vote was not democracy, he responded: ''Why fight a battle I knew I wasn't going to win?''
Asked if he had voted as part of a bloc, outgoing councillor Neville Peat responded: ''No.''
''In fact, we voted in different ways throughout the term, on different topics.
''We were not always on the same side of a division.
Cr Peat said that happened ''numerous times''.
''There was no caucusing that I was involved with.''
