This week, Napier Mayor Bill Dalton called a fellow mayor silly and irresponsible, told the Government it was disconnected from the provinces, accused the Local Government Commission of lacking empathy and said Auckland was a shambles.
"Diplomacy has never been my strong suit," Mr Dalton said yesterday when asked about the string of barbs dished out through two blog posts attacking supporters of amalgamation.
"I simply see things as they are. I tell them like they are and I'm always honest."
His claim that his Hastings counterpart, Lawrence Yule, was "silly and irresponsible" was in response to Mr Yule accusing Mr Dalton's council of being anti-growth and anti-change.
Writing in Wednesday's Hawke's Bay Today, Mr Yule said a Monday Talking Point by Napier deputy mayor Faye White, attacking the Local Government Commission's amalgamation proposal, was "probably the most erroneous I have read for some time".
Mr Yule said Mrs White's comparison of the amalgamation experience in Auckland with what was proposed for Hawkes' Bay was "ridiculous".
"The anti-amalgamation, anti-growth, anti-change brigade have latched on to Auckland in some vain attempt to say that Hawke's Bay is somehow like Auckland."
The Napier City Council has lobbied hard against the proposal to amalgamate the Bay's five councils into a single local authority, while the Hastings District Council has backed the idea.
Last week, the Local Government Commission released a "position paper" updating its stance in favour of amalgamation but with suggested changes to a draft proposal released 12 months ago. The suggested changes include a doubling of the number of councillors who would be elected to the proposed single Hawke's Bay Council, from nine to 18.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Mr Dalton hit back at Mr Yule's criticism of Mrs White, calling his claim that her comments were anti-growth and anti-change "silly and irresponsible".
"Of course everyone wants growth and jobs and an improved economy. Why wouldn't we?" Mr Dalton said.
"And to label us anti-change when the Napier City Council's original submission to the Local Government Commission included ideas for substantial change, is equally irresponsible," he said. In a post yesterday, Mr Dalton focused on the Government, and in particular Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, who had addressed a Local Government NZ meeting of provincial mayors a week earlier.
"[Mr] English spent most of his address telling us about the housing problems in Auckland. We heard that the Government is doing everything it can to encourage the building of dwellings to house the huge growth of population in Auckland," he said.
"It seemed totally lost on the Deputy Prime Minister that his audience had exactly the opposite problem.
"The problem in the provinces is not how to build more houses to house a growing population but how to attract people to fill the houses we have."
Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash, who like Mr Dalton is strongly opposed to the amalgamation proposal, said he agreed with the mayor's view on the housing issue. However, he said he wanted the amalgamation issue debated on the facts, rather than on personalities.
Mr English said he had a "very constructive discussion" with the mayors at last week's meeting "which was wider-ranging than the description in Mr Dalton's blog".
"Secondly, when I visited Hawkes Bay recently I was surprised to find section prices seemed quite high and I was told it was because Napier City Council rations the number of new sections available so I'd be happy to discuss with the mayor how the council could help lower section prices and therefore attract more people to Napier," he said.