Greater Dunedin councillors Dave Cull, Kate Wilson and Chris Staynes yesterday argued Mr Anderson should step aside from the trust.
Trust chairman Malcolm Farry responded last night the trust had, from the start, picked people with the skills, background and experience that was required for the process and, at some time or other, all members of the board would have conflict of interest issues.
The only way to avoid that in Dunedin was to choose people who had no skills or experience in such a project.
Mr Anderson, the founder of Arrow International, was named a trustee in 2006, and in the same year, Arrow International won the contract to produce a feasibility report for the stadium.
This month, the company was appointed to help manage the overall design and construction for the project.
At a council finance and strategy meeting yesterday, Cr Cull said the appointment of a trustee's company created the perception of a conflict of interest.
"The public is starting to say, 'This looks like jobs for the boys'.
"It's a perception that matters - an unacceptable perception."
Cr Cull said after the meeting he was not questioning the integrity of Mr Anderson, or the selection process.
But it would have been better for Mr Anderson step away from the trust.
"This is a big one, because this is a major contract.
"Wouldn't it have been better in terms of public perception, or honour . . . for Ron to step down from the trust?"
Cr Chris Staynes said Arrow had been an integral part of the project from the start, and there would be something terribly wrong if it could not get the contract with the knowledge it had.
He said Mr Anderson should have stepped down earlier.
"The fact that he remained [a trustee] is not a good look."
Cr Syd Brown defended the decision, and said there had been a "clear, clean" process for selecting a company.
It had been done by an independent group, and that group had made a unanimous recommendation to the trust.
The committee voted unanimously to note the appointment.
"I don't see how we could have handled this any differently," Cr Brown said.
Mr Farry laid out the process by which Arrow had been chosen for the role in a letter to the editor of the ODT.
Mr Anderson could not be contacted last night.
