The days of Invercargill's mayor and councillors washing their dirty linen in public could be numbered. 

Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt and the elected members have had a number of very public spats over the past six months. 

Shadbolt issued an blistering statement to Stuff in May last year, after being outvoted on changes to the committee structure, which he said effectively sidelined him. 

He said he no longer trusted then-deputy Toni Biddle and accused council chief executive Clare Hadley of running a "shadow cabinet" on the council. 

Then, when Biddle resigned in October, councillor Alex Crackett gave a scathing interview to Stuff about Shadbolt, calling him an "absent mayor" and suggesting he should resign.

She said he was struggling to keep up with city and national affairs and not fulfilling his role. 

Shadbolt countered saying she was a "puppet for a very negative faction" furthering an "untrue smear campaign" about his health and engagements.

Deputy mayor Nobby Clark has also raised concerns in the media about Hadley.

Now, following an independent review into the council's governance ability, Shadbolt and councillors are being asked to agree to new 'media protocols' and meet today to discuss them. 

They've been penned by council staffers and authorised by Hadley.

The protocols set out that "elected members agree to focus on council issues and activities when speaking to the media, rather than the actions or decisions of other elected members or staff".

Shadbolt and councillors will be given media training and invited to "participate in positive communications activities".  

They'll also be asked to recognise that media can shape public opinion, so agree "the need to take care when sharing views about council decisions or activities". 

When the council makes an unpopular decision "for the right reasons", they'll agree to "acknowledge background issues publicly even when they have disagreed with a decision".

And, they'll be a "no surprises" policy, with elected members and staff sharing information about their media activities. 

Shadbolt was unavailable for interview late yesterday, but Crackett told the Southland App she doesn't believe the new policy will gag elected members. 

Councillor Alex Crackett

"We'll have to wait and see how my peers feel about it, but my sense is that it doesn't undermine my ability to function as a councillor and if I want to voice an individual opinion I have all the rights to do so," she said.

"I don't see it as negative, I see it as us moving forward and working collectively, which is what the community expects of us." 

She said she recognised that had the new policy been in place in October it "wouldn't have been apt for me to make those comments", but said she was asked the question about Shadbolt and felt she "couldn't simply lie to the public". 

She's happy to move forward. 

"No one is a stranger to the fact that [internal conflict] has been an issue over the past six months," she says. 

"The focus should be more about the issues and the state of the city before us, rather than the state of our peers around the table." 

Shadbolt and councillors meet at 3pm today.