Invercargill's mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt is again calling for more comprehensive investigation into the interception of an email he sent to media.

Councillors met this morning to discuss Wellington barrister Robert Buchanan's "meaty" review of its electronic procedures. 

The $10,000-budgeted review came after council chief executive Clare Hadley had intercepted a statement from the mayor's email account to media on August 10.

Hadley passed the email on to the Chair's Group (mayor, deputy mayor, chairs and deputy chairs of council's standing committees), amidst ongoing efforts to tackle acrimonious public tit-for-tat between elected members. 

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She later admitted she should not have done so, although said there were agreed arrangements for her to access the mayor's emails. 

Buchanan found those arrangements are "lawful, appropriate and meet expectations", but "did not extend to purposes of media management". 

However, he said there were areas of uncertainty, including clear arrangements for media management and whether the mayor was emailing in a personal capacity, or as a council spokesperson. 

Those uncertainties made it difficult to say whether established processes were followed.

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Sir Tim, this morning, said he felt "vindicated" by the report, which he believed identified the email as "personal information". 

"As the findings are inconclusive, I'm requesting a further review with a broader scope to consider the lawfulness of the interceptions," he said. 

The mayor has sought separate legal advice, which he'd presented to Buchanan, and then to councillors late last night. 

"As per my privately sourced opinion, I believe there needs to be more precise review of the specific event of the interception. Further I believe the CE's admitted wrongdoing should be thoroughly investigated and there needs to be repercussions. 

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"The scope of the current review sought to sweep the issue under the carpet by focusing on arrangements in place, rather than the actions of the CE . . ." 

Hadley was empowered to access Sir Tim's emails back in April, so she could help manage his weekly schedule, particularly late items, helping Clark fill in where required. 

Clark had complained he was not being kept informed, and highlighted the MPI meeting around the parasite Bonamia ostreae being detected in oysters Foveaux Strait in March (which later proved to be down to a human error during testing), as an example, saying he had not had a "heads up". 

This morning, Clark opposed another "costly" review, saying he believed it was Hadley's duty to pass the email on to the Chair's Group. 

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"The bottom line is we as a Chairs Group had tried on numerous occasions to encourage the mayor not to . . . make media statements that were inaccurate and downright dishonest, and that's for the record...," Clark said.

"His response is 'doesn't care less', so if we get a signal that says that there's another media release going out then it's appropriate to raise it with us." 

Clark maintained the email to media breached the Local Government Act, Code of Conduct, Employment Relations Act and Hadley's personal contract, because it discussed staff members. 

He said there are many other avenues for the council to address Hadley's actions, as she is an employee, rather than an external review. 

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Councillor Rebecca Amundsen proposed an additional recommendation that councillors state for the record that Hadley's actions were "appropriate" in light of the first Thompson report, which aimed to build public confidence in the council and included a 'no-surprises' media protocol. 

Councillors, sitting in ICCs Risk and Assurance Committee which commissioned the review, voted to accept Buchanan's review and to support Amundsen's recommendation, except Sir Tim, who abstained.