Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Fenton Wilson has had to defend his authority against comments made over the council's perceived lack of public communication and financial transparency.
The council came under fire over these issues through public submissions that were heard at yesterday's council meeting.
President of the local branch of Federated Farmers Will Foley said the financial information supporting the draft annual plan consultation document for the regional council did not provide the same degree of clear and transparent information seen from other councils.
"We do not believe it is 'user friendly' and, furthermore, for the majority of the community, would be hard to follow," Mr Foley said.
He said from a Hawke's Bay perspective, Federated Farmers believed the Hastings District Council's Long-Term Plan provided clear and transparent information.
"We recommend that [the regional] council work towards providing information in the future in a similar format as presented by this council," the submission reads.
Mr Wilson said he agreed with this assertion to a "certain point" so he would "take that on the chin".
He said the council was "trying pretty hard" but that it was working to a new set of reporting guidelines. "It's not perfect yet, it is a new system, a new way of doing things.
"We are still fine tuning some of that stuff but actually we do everything with [the] best intention."
Former regional councillor Tim Gilbertson used his submission to slam the council's public relations efforts for the Ruataniwha dam.
"[Which] to date have been incompetent, unprofessional, ineffective and damaging to the case for the [dam]," he said. Mr Gilbertson said the council needed to "sharpen up its act considerably" and take steps to correct the misinformation being spread about the dam in an effort to convince the region that it is "a viable, desirable asset". Mr Wilson brushed these comments aside, saying that HBRIC had a challenging role in this area.
"They just can't keep pumping out the same good story, whatever it is, every day because people say 'I read that yesterday'," he said.
He said, moreover, there was always a "new set of ears" that got interested in Ruataniwha, and as such asked the same questions over again.
"It is very hard to maintain that level of interaction," he said.
He did acknowledge that there were different views about the dam in the community and that some of them were "not entirely accurate".
"But I don't see it as my role today to go and correct everything," Mr Wilson said.