But the formal exoneration of Cr Betts is unlikely to be the end of the matter, with her opponents on council fuming at the outcome. "What they've done is used the Office of Local Government report to refuse to apologise," Labor councillor John Wakefield said. Independent councillor Miriam Guttman-Jones, once an ally of the mayor, accused the Liberal bloc of using their dominance to cherry-pick the outcome. "They didn't take into consideration a report which took almost a year to complete, with extensive interviews, and instead chose the report which was favourable to the mayor," she said. Cr Guttman-Jones was one of eight complainants who triggered an investigation into Cr Betts, after she declared a meeting on May 2016 closed "on the voices", as it was poised to debate controversial upgrades to the Bondi Pavilion.

In the process, she ignored the upraised hand of her Liberal colleague Joy Clayton who had crossed party lines to vote to continue the meeting. Seven members of the public also lodged complaints. Cr Clayton said she was "disappointed by the outcome" chosen by the Liberal colleagues. Equipped with the conflicting recommendation of both reports, five Liberal councillors voted to formally clear the mayor of inappropriate conduct and found she owed no apology to Cr Clayton. They also voted to request council staff approach consultancy firm O'Connor, Marsden and Associates, which prepared the initial report, to explain how it can remedy the harm caused to Cr Betts and the council as a result of the report. Labor councillors John Wakefield and Paula Masselos voted against the motion.

Deputy mayor Tony Kay, a Liberal councillor, said he believed there were "elements of bias" in the OCM report, and said the firm had pursued an "unfair process" during its investigation into Cr Betts. "There were a swag of people who were at the meeting who weren't interviewed [by OCM]. Wouldn't you also get the other side of the story? They did not do that," he said. The decision has further embroiled the chief executive of the Office of Local Government, Tim Hurst, upon whose written advice Cr Bett's five Liberal colleagues based their motion to exonerate her. Mr Hurst's advice, which outlined the findings of a departmental review of the OCM report and a separate review of the audio from the meeting, concluded that it was "reasonably open to Cr Betts to arrive at the decision she did". He requested his letter, which contained the findings of the review, be considered by council alongside the OCM recommendation that Cr Betts "make an unreserved apology".

His advice was provided to council on June 9, after Cr Bett's appealed to the Office of Local Government, seeking a review of the OCM report's findings. Three weeks earlier, Mr Hurst contacted Greens MP David Shoebridge requesting he reconsider using parliamentary privilege to discuss the OCM report findings before council had considered the report. Mr Shoebridge responded last week by filing a further motion requesting the Parliamentary privileges committee investigate whether Mr Hurst's intervention constituted a contempt of Parliament. Mr Shoebridge, on Wednesday, also criticised the substance of Mr Hurst's advice to Waverley Council. "The job of the Office of Local Government is to oversee the process, not second guess the outcome in order to protect mayors."

The Office of Local Government declined to comment. Mr Shoebridge is the subject of a separate motion, filed by Liberal MP Catherine Cusack, calling on him to apologise for "wilful breach of confidentiality and misrepresentations concerning the report". The motions will be debated when Parliament resumes in August.