The committee initiated the proceedings against Mrs Latham and her company, Innerwink.
Mrs Latham was a creditor of the 2009 festival and claimed $2868 reimbursement for a bill she had paid on behalf of the festival.
The committee did not want to pay the amount so took the matter to the tribunal.
"The hearing was solely about the bill, it was not about the committee's relationship with Innerwink," festival committee chairwoman Clair Higginson said this week.
The festival was declared technically insolvent in March after three successive years of festival losses, totalling $134, 451.
Mrs Latham was event manager for the 2009 festival, which recorded a loss of $73,143 and owed more than $80,000 to its creditors.
Innerwink was paid $27, 939 for managing the event.
The sum of money in dispute at the tribunal hearing was separate from the fee Innerwink had been paid, Ms Higginson said.
It related to an account Mrs Latham had paid for services provided in relation to publicity material.
"Historically, if the committee had been aware of the financial situation of the festival at the time, if it had realised how things were, it would have tried to negotiate a different deal, as we did with many of the other creditors."
The two parties reached a settlement at the tribunal, with the committee agreeing to pay the outstanding bill but declining to pay any costs or interest incurred by Mrs Latham, she said.
"We're glad that's dealt with and we can put it behind us."
Concerns were raised by the committee earlier this year about the management of the 2009 event but those issues were not part of the tribunal hearing, Ms Higginson said.
When contacted by the Otago Daily Times this week, Mrs Latham confirmed she had been involved in the hearing.
The settlement in her favour "validates my initial statement [made in April] that at no time did I withhold information from the committee, nor was I in breach of any contract of employment," Mrs Latham said from Christchurch.
After the festival's dire financial situation was made public, a meeting was held in March to gauge support for the event to continue.
Later that month the Vincent Community Board agreed to cover the losses of the 2009 festival.
The chairman during the three festivals which lost money, Steve Battrick, resigned from the committee in January and his successor, Tim Cadogan resigned as chairman in early April, with Ms Higginson, the community board chairwoman, taking over the role.
The festival committee was happy with the response to this year's festival which refocused on the local community, she said.
There would be a small profit from the 2010 festival.
That amount had not yet been confirmed, but was likely to be about $15,000.
"If there's a lesson to be learnt from the successive losses, it's that the festival committee cannot rest on its laurels and neither can the community."
The Disputes Tribunal usually deals with claims up to $15,000.
Disputes are heard by a referee who works with the parties to reach an agreed settlement or who determines the outcome of the dispute.
Hearings are informal but any order of the tribunal is binding and can be enforced by the courts.
