Bluff Community Board member Brent Procter was not censured for calling Bluff resident Kylie Fowler the c word because the board had no power to censure him, Invercargill City Council chief executive Richard King said yesterday.

Several people had written letters of complaint to the city council about Mr Procter's behaviour and had asked for him to be publicly censured at a board meeting on Wednesday night.

Mr King said the board had last year adopted a "working relationship document", similar to a code of conduct but, because it was not adopted unanimously by the board members and wasn't signed, it was not binding.

As such, the board did not have the power to publicly censure Mr Procter for his behaviour when it was discussed at Wednesday night's meeting, he said.

Following the meeting, board chairwoman Jan Mitchell said the board members had unanimously agreed to work collaboratively and with decorum in the best interests of the community. However, just six hours later, at 3.35am yesterday , Mr Procter again called Ms Fowler the c word on a blog.

When asked yesterday why he had done so, Mr Procter said it had been to "say hi guys, say hi to the bloggers . . . that's the very reason I put it there, to wind the f. . . . s up.

"They have just been screaming for my blood and there's no blood there, so I couldn't resist it."

He was referring to a group of people in the Bluff community, including Ms Fowler, who he had been at "war" with, he said.

He claimed their blogs had targeted Mrs Mitchell and himself and he had used the c word to bring the issue to a head.

"I used the c word deliberately . . . the last time being a symbolic victory roll. The smartest thing everybody should now do, as Mrs Mitchell has said, is put the past behind us and work jointly for the future."

Mr King said the council was disappointed Mr Procter had breached, after just six hours, the community board's resolution to act with decorum.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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