Five Hawke's Bay regional councillors approved a $3.1 million funding top-up for the Ruataniwha dam while their four colleagues were out of the room protesting against perceived secrecy surrounding the project.
The four absent councillors - Rick Barker, Peter Beaven, Tom Belford and Rex Graham - stormed out of Wednesday's meeting after losing a fight to have a confidential agenda item about the dam project discussed in public.
The item involved a request from the council's investment arm, Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC), for an extension of funding as it continues work on the $275 million Ruataniwha dam and water storage scheme for Central Hawke's Bay.
Council management and the HBRIC board wanted to discuss it in secret, saying it was commercially sensitive.
But the four councillors said nothing in the agenda item paper warranted such action. They were outvoted by the council's other members: chairman Fenton Wilson, Christine Scott, Alan Dick, Debbie Hewitt and Dave Pipe.
Yesterday, the council issued a statement saying councillors had voted at the meeting to approve a $3.1 million advance to HBRIC to cover its operations until "financial close" - the point where contracts for the Ruataniwha dam and water storage project are finalised.
The decision to approve the advance was "supported by all councillors present" at the meeting, the statement said.
In July, the council resolved to invest up to $80 million in the Ruataniwha scheme, provided several conditions were met by financial close.
These include HBRIC securing remaining funding for the project and sufficient contracts being signed by irrigators to make the scheme viable.
Financial close was expected earlier this year but has slipped back, as resource consent and legal issues have dragged on longer than anticipated.
HBRIC is now predicting financial close will be around the end of March.
Yesterday's statement said the $3.1 million advance passed this week would be part of the council's approved total maximum $80 million investment in the Ruataniwha scheme.
HBRIC has so far spent more than $10 million on the project but the council said $1.93 million of its costs were related to a board of inquiry hearing into a parallel environmental plan change - Plan Change 6 - which was considered by the board in conjunction with the consent application for Ruataniwha.
"Those [Plan Change 6] costs would otherwise have to be met from council's own operating budget," yesterday's statement said.
The board of inquiry approved consents for the dam but imposed tough new environmental conditions for the Tukituki catchment under the plan change.
The delay in HBRIC reaching financial close has been exacerbated by a High Court challenge to the board of inquiry decision, lodged by environmental groups.
The challenge is set down to be heard in Wellington over three days from November 10.