Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich is not commenting further, after his earlier words led to a full-blown apology.

The latest twist comes after the Dunedin City Council voted to send a letter to Barry Williams, the highest polling candidate of the 2022 Strath Taieri election, asking he resign.

That came after a closed door meeting where councillors upheld findings of a code of conduct independent investigation into Williams’ behaviour.

Stuff understands Williams racially abused a staff member at a packed pub after a meal order was mixed-up, but has not resigned and remains unrepentant, saying ‘’why the f… should I’’.

While he was less than contrite, the same could not be said for Radich, who issued an apology after a RNZ interview where he said: ‘’It happened in a pub, and he didn’t even remember that it had happened, so it was just a relatively minor thing’’.

Fast-forward 24 hours and Radich’s office released the following: ‘’I have learned a valuable lesson over the past 24 hours about the power of my words.’’

‘’I have reflected on this today and I want to apologise unreservedly for minimising the clearly racist comment made by the chair of the Strath Taieri Community Board in my comments to media yesterday.’’

‘’To be clear – a racist comment is always a racist comment.’’

‘’It is never a minor thing.’’

Radich maintained he remained ‘’appalled and disappointed by the chair’s comment’’, and hoped he would reflect on his position and his use of language.

‘’I will be making no further comment,’’ Radich said.

In a statement, the council said any reports or further details regarding the incident would not be made public in order to protect the privacy of the individual involved in the incident.

That also prompted the council to proactively release the letter sent to Williams, which was also sent to his community board, unconfirmed draft minute extract from Tuesday’s meeting