Pete Whiting told squabbling councillors there was "massive disconnect between decision-makers and people with something of value to offer".

A leaked email sent to Wellington city councillors paints a picture of an organisation in chaos, and a "toxic culture" in which personal ambitions reign supreme.

The email, provided to Stuff, is from Pete Whiting, who was hired from Australia as a transport engagement officer to advise on cycleways.

He quit late last month after only four months, saying council power brokers largely ignored his experience and ideas.

ROBERT KITCHIN/ FAIRFAX NZ Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown riding the controversial cycleway in Island Bay, which Whiting said the council had turned into a "political mess".

In an email sent on July 11, after his resignation, he lambasted councillors and senior management, saying he had never before encountered a council that would "bury its head in the sand over transport and future transport issues".

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He accused them of turning the Island Bay cycleway "into a political mess", to the point "where the project completely stalled", leaving him with virtually nothing to do.

TWITTER Pete Whiting in Wellington. He said it "is the greatest city I have ever lived in", and he was disappointed to leave.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves in the way you treat each other and the issue," Whiting wrote, in reference to the cycleway.

He said councillors divided the community and polarised the cycleway "just for some cheap support", and he was dumbfounded by the council's disconnected structure.

"I am just disgusted at the toxic culture I witnessed.

"I also found the lack of teamwork, cohesion, vision and unity of council astounding. I expect this in the community, not in council."

"PLEASE GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER"

He claimed authorities for whom he had worked in Siberia and Kazakhstan had better engagement with the public than Wellington did.

He concluded: "Please get your act together for Wellington's sake."

Whiting shifted to the capital from South Australia, and planned to move his family here. He expected to be flat-out running focus groups, targeted interviews, drop-in days and citizen juries, then feeding the data into the planning process.

Last month, Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown admitted her council's handling of the divisive $1.2m Island Bay cycleway project was a mistake.

She would not comment on the email on Wednesday, saying it was a "staff management issue".

But she said she was pleased to see the council "moving forward in a more united way" after councillors voted unanimously in late June to consult the public as soon as possible on whether the cycleway should remain.

Council acting chief exectuvie Greg Orchard said on Wednesday: "Mr Whiting had some arguably justifiable grievances.

"However, in his email he made claims that we don't think are fair, especially in light of our responses to the Morrison Low (NZTA-commissioned) review that was made public more than a month earlier."

Orchard said senior staff had been working closely with NZTA since early June on the Island Bay cycleway and wider cycling upgrades.

"New and improved public consultation and engagement is central to that work," he said.

"HE WAS THE REAL DEAL"

Councillor Simon Woolf also said Whiting had some fair points. "He's a credible person. He's got the goods ... I felt he was the real deal."

Woolf, the council's community engagement portfolio leader, said Whiting arrived at a bad time, with the cycleway melee scuppering his chances.

"I certainly felt for him. He's really a good guy, and very capable."

Councillor Paul Eagle, a staunch critic of the cycleway design and consultation process, said Whiting was a "breath of fresh air", but had been set up to fail.

"I thought, we've finally got a person who understands engagement, not consultation, and he had that Aussie bluntness," Eagle said.

It was "a real shame" Whiting had left. "We needed that expertise."

WHO IS PETE WHITING?

* According to his email, he has a degree in anthropology and a masters in environmental anthropology. He "worked on numerous projects requiring extensive community and stakeholder engagement".

* Previously communications and media officer at South Australia's Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. He said his department had six "engagement practitioners" for an office with 150 people. Wellington now has none.

* The department said he left on good terms last year.

- Additional reporting John Weekes