Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark refuses to resign

Invercargill mayor Nobby Clark arrives at the extraordinary meeting on Friday where he refused to resign. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

Invercargill councillors have voted to formally censure mayor Nobby Clark and ask him to step back from public appearances for the rest of the council term following a code of conduct complaint.

A motion to formally ask Clark to resign was narrowly defeated with six councillors voting against the motion and five supporting it during an extraordinary meeting.

Deputy mayor Tom Campbell who is chairing the meeting then put forward his own motion that requested the mayor delegates his public appearance to all formal public events for the rest of the council term.

The motion also asked for a letter of censure and for the mayor to apologise to the MC of an event who he wrongly implied was having an affair and made personal attacks about, including regarding her appearance and competence.

He was also asked to publicly apologise to councillors, council staff and the city's residents.

Earlier Clark said he will not resign over unacceptable behaviour that's prompted multiple calls for him to stand aside.

He withdrew from the extraordinary meeting that's been called to deal with a code of conduct complaint against him.

Councillors agreed Clark breached its code of conduct in a material way.

It comes after councillor Ian Pottinger asked for his resignation, saying his behaviour was unacceptable.

He and councillor Ria Bond also filed a code of conduct complaint after Clark repeatedly using the N-word.

The latest complaint from the United Fire Brigades' Association (UFBA) said Clark mocked, disrespected, degraded and offended its members and other guests during an event.

UFBA chief executive William Butzbach said Clark said volunteer firefighters were second-class citizens, made personal attacks on the MC - including her appearance, competence and the fact she lived in Ponsonby - and wrongly implied the UFBA president and MC were having an affair.

He apologised in a letter to Butzbach, saying he was suffering from "brain fade" following open heart surgery.

Clark was found to be in breach of the council's Code of Conduct following an investigation.

More to come...