With administrators already reforming Wollongong City Council, business leaders, developers and unions said it was time for the city to move past the scandal.

The ICAC report made a raft of recommendations to improve transparency and fairness in the council's development application approval process, many of which the council is in the process of implementing.

The report found corruption had spread through five tiers of council - from its management structure, through to councillors.

ICAC made 27 corruption prevention recommendations to reduce the chances of a similar scandal engulfing the council in the future.

Chairman of the Illawarra chapter of the Property Council of Australia, Geoff Jones, said Wollongong City Council was now heading in the right direction.

"(General manager) David Farmer and council management have in place a plan to take council forward," he said. "All the issues around the ICAC (investigation) have been addressed, let's get on with it and go forward and stop looking backwards."

Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou said the report was a sad indictment on the way the council had been run for years.

"I think (former general manager) Rod Oxley - being the head of the organisation (at the time) - needs to take responsibility for what happened," he said.

Mr Christodoulou was scathing of former ALP members the ICAC report found had engaged in corrupt conduct, saying they had damaged the party brand.

"They need to be ashamed of their actions," he said. "They should be expelled from the party and never allowed to rejoin."

Illawarra Business Chamber president Les Dion said a collective effort would be needed to rebuild the city's reputation in the wake of the investigation.

"Today is day one of that rebuilding phase, as the city tries to move forward," he said. "Back in March, IBC led calls for the appointment of administrators following the initial hearings."

Mr Dion said the council's reform process would be important to restore investor confidence in the city and ensure developments were not unnecessarily delayed.

"This is vital at this point of time when the global and national economy is slowing and we have already seen this impact upon a number of major projects in the city."