Newcastle councillors in minority parties have called out what they perceive to be an unfair delegation of media responsibility to Labor councillors in a heated debate at Tuesday's meeting.
Greens councillor Charlotte McCabe and Liberal Jenny Barrie said they felt Labor representatives were given more opportunities to act for the council at media events.
"I just would like to raise it as an issue that this is potentially an issue of bias here," Cr McCabe. "And to make it fair, I think it should either be only the lord mayor, the deputy lord mayor and the CEO, or it should be somehow opened fairly to all councillors."
But lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes hit back, saying the inference was "offensive".
"What I do think is problematic is that there are a number of accusations that have been made at this meeting which are completely unfounded, and could constitute a potential breach of the code of conduct," she said.
Cr Nelmes said councillors "will get recognition, if you do the work".
"You can't just turn up and two months later and go oh, look, you know, I've done all this because you haven't actually done anything, no offence," she said.
The adopted motion was that the lord mayor and CEO be spokespeople, and are able to delegate the role on a "case-by-case basis". The old wording said the lord mayor can nominate another councillor, which would "usually" be the deputy.
Cr Mackenzie said the proposed wording was "totally inappropriate and insufficiently detailed". He tried unsuccessfully to move that only the lord mayor, deputy lord mayor and CEO act as spokesperson to reflect the Local Government Act. CEO Jeremy Bath said that wouldn't provide "wiggle room" if the three were unavailable.
