Two Hawke's Bay regional councillors have defied their chairman's request to wear ties to meetings, turning up in open-necked shirts despite a request they dress up to deal with the "formal process" of council business.
Last month, council chairman Fenton Wilson made a "request, not a demand" of the seven male councillors that they all wear ties to meetings after three turned up without them.
One of the three men who was called out last month, Rick Barker, said at the time he was happy to comply with the request and arrived for yesterday's meeting wearing a tie.
However, the other two councillors, Rex Graham and Tom Belford, arrived in open-necked shirts.
"We have agreed to disagree on the subject," Mr Belford said.
Mr Graham, one of three councillors representing the Hastings ward, which includes a large rural area, said dressing up with a tie sent the wrong message to many of the people he represented.
"With my constituency it's an issue. I would almost be in trouble if I did [wear a tie]."
Mr Wilson said he did not regret making the request, but the issue had been discussed "and that's democracy. We actually had a reasonably humorous interaction over it."