Greens councillors Jill Merrin and independent Vicki Curran said they had recently "uncovered a major flaw" in how the council conducted David Farmer's annual performance reviews and had not been following the correct state government guidelines for 3½ years.

"What this comes down to is proper process, and accountability and transparency in the council," Cr Merrin said.

"The Independent Commission Against Corruption and the NSW government have both provided our council with advice on how to manage the GM's performance, and so far during this term we haven't complied with those guidelines."

She said the guidelines dictated that councillors needed to annually elect a councillor to join Cr Bradbery and the deputy lord mayor in overseeing Mr Farmer's performance and said all councillors should have input into the review and be able to access its results.

Cr Merrin attempted to raise this issue as a "matter of great urgency" ahead of Monday night's meeting, but said she had been "shut down" by Cr Bradbery who later lodged his own "weaker" motion on the same subject.

Cr Bradbery disputed that the performance review issue was "uncovered" by councillors Merrin and Curran, saying it had instead been brought to his attention by a staff member during the planning for Mr Farmer's 2015 review.

"Cr Merrin wanted to put this up as a matter of urgency, but it had already be recognised as a problem and it's being dealt with," Cr Bradbery said.

"This was an opportunity to make her look like she has discovered something that we're not across, but we are."

He maintained the performance reviews had been conducted properly each year, with Cr Michelle Blicavs overseeing the reviews for the past three years, but that the council's charter had not been updated to reflect the latest state government requirements.

kmcilwain@fairfaxmedia.com.au