But a disaffected councillor says the council’s actions are "an absolute appalling disgrace".
Most councillors spent yesterday discussing submissions from 27 "key stakeholders" on the council’s contentious land and water plan.
Cr Kelliher cited concerns with the council’s response to Environment Minister Penny Simmonds, who last week extended the deadline for notification of the plan to the end of 2027.
Ms Simmonds has also urged the council not to follow through with its present aim to notify the plan on June 30.
Cr Michael Laws, who also did not attend yesterday’s land and water plan workshop, said forecast changes to the freshwater planning framework rendered yesterday’s discussion "largely irrelevant".
ORC chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson said councillors convened to check whether anything could be improved in the plan ahead of public notification.
The submissions were helpful "regardless of when the notification date is set for the plan".
"ORC has no wish to be defiant or rebellious," Cr Robertson said.
"We’re walking a delicate tightrope of honouring current obligations with emerging government visions for freshwater planning.
"We’re keen to establish a transparent and constructive relationship which results in great outcomes for Otago’s people and waterways."
Councillors would next Wednesday consider staff and legal advice on options for the land and water plan work programme, including the option to pause work, "and also all the implications associated with those options", she said.
Last week, Ms Simmonds officially removed a previous ministerial requirement to notify the plan by the end of June.
She said she would instead require the council to provide a report into the "costs, benefits and implications" of notifying the plan before the NPSFM was replaced if that was the path councillors chose.
Cr Kelliher said he had advised the council he was "refusing" to attend the workshop.
"Councillor feedback or anything from seriously impacted community seems totally ignored," Cr Kelliher said.
"Staff are riding rampant on this determination to push it forward as their last shot to implement what the previous government wanted.
"It’s an absolute appalling disgrace."
Cr Laws said he informed Cr Robertson that he had received and read the 35 pages of staff summary of submissions and "realised they were conducted under a policy framework soon to be made extinct".
His non-attendance though was not a boycott, "just a more gainful use of my time given the workshop is largely irrelevant".
The staff summary of submissions discussed yesterday covered a range of matters, including renewable energy generation, references to Te Mana o te Wai in the plan, flood protection and drainage infrastructure, and permitted activity rules for farming.
It also said in the submissions "some parties" had asked for a delay of notification and "other parties" were supportive of the June 30 date.
However, it said the notification date was up to councillors.
