Invercargill councillors have finally found something to unite them - criticism of mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt over a media article. 

Sir Tim complained to the Otago Daily Times on April 9 that he had been denied one-on-one I.T training by the council.

But both council staff and councillors claim that's not true and demanded a retraction and apology. 

Sir Tim refused. 

So, this afternoon, councillors voted that the council "records its concern about the factually incorrect statements his worship, the mayor, made to the ODT..." 

It also recorded its "disappointment that he has failed to correct the facts and apologise in an equivalent public forum for the harm caused to the organisation". 

The article was the latest in a series of public spats over recent years, which has seen various councillors question each others' ability and motives.  

It came after a new 'media protocol' was put in place by the council, which aimed to rein in what councillors say in public. 

That was widely condemned as an attempt to stifle public debate, not least by Sir Tim himself who claimed it was an attack on the freedom of speech. 

All but one councillor voted in favour of today's motion. 

Councillor Lindsay Abbott abstained from the vote because he wanted to hear Sir Tim's side of the story. 

Sir Tim gave it, saying he'd changed his policy of not commenting to the media on issues because "it didn't work".

He said he would make a public statement once he'd had the opportunity to "find out exactly what the facts are".

"It's a bit of a 'who said, she said' [sic]," Sir Tim said.

"I know I was as angry over the weekend too, because The Battle for Crete was blamed purely on New Zealanders, and that to me seemed a very unfair assertion, especially for international television to take, and that's why I want to make sure that before making a public statement I am fully informed about exactly what has happened." 

Abbott asked Sir Tim if he acknowledged that he did have training. 

"All those issues will be covered," he said.

Shadbolt, Abbott and Deputy Mayor Nobby Clark were the only elected members to vote against the media protocols. 

But Clark told Abbott today that he himself had given Sir Tim two-and-a-half hours of I.T training.

Councillor Lesley Soper said she'd sat next to the mayor in other I.T training sessions on board management software Diligent Boardbooks.  

Clark said the matter had been raised in a chairs' meeting three weeks ago.

Clark said: "I found it really difficult. 

"The mayor stated at that meeting that he was taking a different tack with the media and was going to be on the front foot. 

"His colleagues were a bit upset by the fact that what he was saying about the one-on-one I.T training was incorrect and challenged him about whether that change of tack and freedom of speech gave him the opportunity to be telling something less than the truth. 

"His response was 'I've got greater mana in the community than any of you will ever have' and that was frustrating because the last three or four or five media comments we've had in the last three or four weeks have all been negative of council and most of them have been unjustified. 

"I think going forward we need more of a collective agreement that we'll be positive about what we're doing and not negative."

Councillors had just signed an elected members' charter. 

Soper, who had seconded the motion put forward by Cr Rebecca Amundsen, said: "Correction and apology in an equivalent public forum is a reasonable request. 

"It's a standard to which we should all hold ourselves, it's a standard to which we have just committed in the charter we have just signed . . . it's to my mind actually quite a low standard to which we should hold ourselves, I hope that we hold ourselves to much higher standards. 

"I think this one is fundamental to this council moving on as part of showing the people who elected us that we are indeed a council that are united and can move on."

The charter and media protocols have stemmed from an independent report into the council's governance issues, which led to the formation of the Project Governance Group.