The NSW Office of Local Government is reviewing Newcastle councillor Allan Robinson's code of conduct breaches relating to offensive comments he made about fellow councillors.
The state government agency said on Friday that two referrals from the council about Cr Robinson were "an active matter under consideration" but it would "not be appropriate to comment further" at this time.
The code breaches were first revealed in November last year, but Newcastle's Labor and Greens councillors voted to release an investigator's report detailing the breaches earlier this week.
It revealed how Cr Robinson had made a string of offensive comments during interviews with an investigator about Labor councillors Nuatali Nelmes, Declan Clausen and Carol Duncan.
These were in addition to comments he had made publicly which prompted the code of conduct complaints.
Newcastle Independents councillors, an alliance Cr Robinson was aligned with, and Liberal Brad Luke voted against releasing the report. The Independents lord mayoral candidate John Church, who announced Thursday Cr Robinson would not be part of his election ticket, issued a statement on Friday questioning the report's timing.
"The Labor councillors chose to 'proactively release' this report, when at the time, we were just weeks away from the election," he said.
Newcastle council CEO Jeremy Bath said at Tuesday's meeting it was being released following legal advice which indicated it could be made public in accordance with Government Information (Public Access) Act. Mr Bath said Friday it would have been made public "many months earlier" had Cr Robinson "not formally objected to it being released".
The council voted in November to seek advice, delaying Cr Robinson's censures to have the OLG examine whether they were worthy of punishment under the Local Government Act's serious misconduct provisions.
The OLG has only recently started looking at the matter because the initial referral to the agency was not received. The OLG said it was notified in "late May" but correspondence seen by the Herald shows council referred the matter in December.
The Newcastle Independents are yet to decide if they will swap preferences with Robinson, who has vowed to contest the December ballot as a "rogue independent".
The retired jockey and former NRL Footy Show regular, who now runs a demolition business, will be seeking a third term on council.
Despite calls from Labor for the Ward 4 councillor to resign, Cr Robinson said he would not be walking away. He has previously said he would let "the ratepayer be in charge of who resigns".
"I'm not walking [from the council]. No f---ing way. I love f---ing working on council," he said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Cr Church has called for the council elected in December to "deliver a higher standard" in terms of the "tone of public debate".
"I can't condone Allan Robinson's comments which have caused unnecessary hurt," he said.
"Sexism, misogyny and homophobia are all absolutely abhorrent, and have no place in society, let alone in council. Bullying behaviour is also totally unacceptable."
