However, the city’s mayor called the characterisation by Aaron Hawkins ‘‘ridiculous’’.
The exchange followed a council annual plan budgets meeting on March 4 and 5 in which a confidential discussion earlier that week was referenced.
The March 2 Monday morning non-public workshop was advertised in the Otago Daily Times, but the council failed to update its workshops schedule online.
Mr Hawkins claimed it was a concerning development that future council spending was being directed by the mayor's ‘‘secret budget committee’’.
There were no obvious grounds under the Local Government Act to keep the discussions private, he said.
‘‘There is no greater matter of public interest than the setting of budgets,’’ Mr Hawkins, a former mayor and councillor, said.
The public deserved to hear arguments being made in support of funding decisions, he said.
Mayor Sophie Barker said Mr Hawkins had it all wrong.
‘‘It's ridiculous to call this the mayor's secret budget committee,’’ she said.
‘‘As Mr Hawkins well knows, absolutely no decisions are able to be made other than by council or its delegated committees.’’
In December last year, the council included a ‘‘budget update process report’’ in the public-excluded part of a meeting agenda.
The ODT received an email from the council on January 23, which said a councillor group was set up at the end of last year to work with staff to review draft annual plan budgets and present options to the full council.
The group comprised Ms Barker, deputy mayor Cherry Lucas and Crs John Chambers, Andrew Simms and Lee Vandervis.
It highlighted many opportunities around budget options, although most related to the 2027-37 long-term plan, the council said at the time.
Ms Barker confirmed the March 2 workshop was about the review group’s work.
‘‘A workshop was held to discuss suggestions from staff on ideas to save money and support council finances,’’ she said.
Ms Barker brought this up at the meeting on March 4, when she commended staff on getting the non-water part of the projected rates rise down to 6.9%.
‘‘I do think we can do better and on Monday we did have a confidential discussion about 30 items that will look to help us get there,’’ she said.
Cr Lee Vandervis then raised this in his speech.
‘‘Mayor Barker has referred to 30 items of significant cost savings that staff and the chief executive have put to us in non-public meetings for our consideration.’’
He added ‘‘what's important to note is that the majority of councillors didn't support any of them’’, before withdrawing the comment and apologising.
Ms Barker reaffirmed afterwards councillors could not vote or make decisions in workshops.
The list was produced by staff and contained suggestions for finding savings and looking for opportunities to rationalise spending, she said.
‘‘Further work on analysing impacts of savings suggestions will be made.’’
Ms Barker said cost of living was the No 1 issue for New Zealanders and the council needed to make tough decisions and ‘‘balance the city's ambition with the impact on people's pockets and lives’’.
Asked if the council could now declare what the 30 items were, the mayor said ‘‘not currently’’.
‘‘They will come up at future meetings, most likely during the long-term plan.
‘‘We face severe financial headwinds and all suggestions to support council finances are welcome.’’
Engagement with the community would happen throughout, including in pre-consultation on the 10-year plan, she said.
‘‘Ideas to save money and get council in a better financial position than it has been over the last couple of council terms will be welcome, consulted on and debated in public.’’
