Lucy Schwaner reads her decleration at Howick Local Board's inauguration, minutes later she would resign after a leadership vote.

An Auckland local board member who quit at her first meeting over losing a leadership vote has taken out a full page ad lashing out at her rival.

Lucy Schwaner walked out and resigned from the Howick Local Board's inaugural meeting on November 3 after losing a leadership vote against incumbent chair David Collings.

Now Collings is seeking legal advice after Schwaner, the wife of Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross, took out a full-page ad in the local Eastern Courier newspaper and published an open letter titled The Story of the Howick Local Board.

JARRED WILLIAMSON / FAIRFAX NZ David Collings is seeking legal advice over an open letter written by Lucy Schwaner, right.

In it she described "deep problems" within the local board and "expressed frustration" from community groups and leaders over Collings' leadership.

READ MORE: Local board member is sworn in, resigns, walks out

Schwaner said she ran for the leadership "because of the unprofessional and seemingly poisonous environment that has developed within the Howick Local Board".

"David as chair of the board struggles to make decisions...staff are frequently subjected to attacks from board members," she wrote

The letter described an account from a "community leader" about finding Collings asleep at his desk when visited on an occasion.

"Some other board members have also been allowed to get away with frequently expressing racist or sexist views," it read.

Collings read the ad, which had also been emailed out to numerous recipients on a mailing list, on Friday morning.

He was going to be seeking legal advice over the ad, he said.

"The public need to question why a person would go so far to take a full page ad out in a newspaper...they can read into what Ms Schwaner's intent was," he said.

Collings said he wasn't aware of any formal complaints made against him by Auckland Council staff.

He had "serious concerns" over the involvement of Ross, a National Party MP.

"People that have known me over the 18 years of serving the community will be scratching their heads over this."

In her ad, Schwaner expressed regret about not speaking out about her concerns earlier.

She also said she would not be serving on the board any longer.

On her resignation, she said: "I would have been a hypocrite to have stayed".