Former West Coast Regional Council chairman Allan Birchfield taunted fellow councillor Frank Dooley, saying "hit me, Frank" during an altercation on May 8.
But what happened was "relatively trivial" and "a storm in a teacup", council barrister Josh Lucas found.
His report, released to The Greymouth Star, was commissioned after a formal complaint from Cr Birchfield of assault by Cr Dooley on May 8 at the Ashley Hotel, in Greymouth.
The hotel was the venue for a recruitment panel for the new chief executive, and convened by council remuneration and employment committee chair Cr Dooley.
The incident occurred just over five weeks after Cr Birchfield was sacked as chairman, not long after returning to council from a four month leave of absence following a stormy closed-door meeting at the council in late November 2022.
Cr Birchfield was not invited on to the May 8 panel but he arrived and was sitting next to council’s recruiter when approached by Cr Dooley who did not want him there.
During the subsequent altercation, Cr Dooley made some heavy remarks, while Cr Birchfield remained seated but said "hit me, Frank", Mr Lucas said in his report.
"[Cr Birchfield] said that Cr Dooley was being quite threatening and sometimes the best way to defend yourself [was] by standing up ... "
Council last week excluded Cr Birchfield from all council committees and ordered him to apologise, based on Mr Lucas’ recommendations.
Mr Lucas contrasts what he had heard from those present on May 8 with what was said by Cr Birchfield in the formal complaint about Cr Dooley.
"Most of the people I spoke to expressed the view that this was a storm in a teacup," Mr Lucas said.
"There was no assault. Cr Dooley got annoyed at the meeting. He told Cr Birchfield to leave and tried to grab some papers out of his hands.
"Cr Birchfield escalated the situation. He tried to provoke Cr Dooley to hit him. There was no physical assault. Even Cr Birchfield told me that. At the most there was some attempted grabbing of papers ... that’s all that happened."
There was also an amicable phone call between the pair immediately after the May 8 incident.
Cr Birchfield’s subsequent allegations against Cr Dooley were were false and over the top, Mr Lucas said.
While Cr Dooley had been "upset and annoyed" at the time, he had also done "the right thing" and apologised afterwards.
That was where the matter should have ended, Mr Lucas said.
"I accept that Cr Dooley realised that in the end he had gone a bit over the top."
As a result of his formal allegations, Cr Birchfield had breached the council code of conduct by failing to treat Crs Dooley and Haddock with the respect their offices deserved.
Among the recommendations for an apology and censure, council did not follow another recommendation by Mr Lucas that the code of conduct matter be aired in public.
Those he had spoken to, including Cr Birchfield, acknowledged a fairly trivial incident, Mr Lucas said.
At the time, when council had "bigger fish to fry", what happened should have been dealt with appropriately in the first instance, he said.
— Brendon McMahon, Local democracy reporter
