TWEED mayor Barry Longland has broken his silence, hitting back at criticism from business and residents in the community.

While he is still not revealing the reasons for sacking the council's general manager, David Keenan, he has refuted accusations of political assassination by Cr Phil Youngblutt and claims by Tweed chamber of Commerce president Rory Curtis that the council is dysfunctional.

A review was held by two investigators from the Division of Local Government this week in the wake of the sacking.

"The review is complete and has been very constructive," Cr Longland said.

"They have given us advice on the way for the future for the council.

"The results of their review will go to the minister for local government next week."

Cr Longland said their report would be released to the council by the end of next week.

"It will be easier then to make a statement," he said.

The Daily News posed four questions to Cr Longland:

Q. Cr Phil Youngblutt has described the sacking of Mr Keenan as a "political assassination." What is your response to this allegation?

"That is an inaccurate description of the event. The GM is not involved in politics. The termination of Mr Keenan's contract was a council decision made in the best interests of the community. It has nothing to do with politics."

Q. Tweed Chamber of Commerce president Rory Curtis has accused the council of being dysfunctional. How is the council functioning since the sacking?

A. "Tweed Shire council is functioning well. We have our next meeting on April 18 and have had very productive workshops this week. The transition to a new acting GM has been fabulous. The organisation is delivering to the Tweed community. A 4-3 decision by the council (to terminate the GM's contract) does not equal dysfunction, but democracy. Most importantly, it was a lawful decision."

Q. Are the reports that there was a heated argument between yourself and the GM over the Leda development company justified? That the sacking is related to this?

A "This is untrue. There are occurrences when I gave advice to the GM and he disagreed and vice versa. Rumours that there was some kind of Leda allegation that I am keeping from the public are completely unfounded and misleading. They have been generated by certain people in the community to cause fear and they have no foundation. The situation that led to the termination built up over a long time. They were not specific to the Leda issue."

Q. Was the GM looking into allegations of anti development bias made by Leda against the council? Are these allegations founded?

A. "Developers don't like the speed at which development applications are dealt with. The Leda developments are very big. They could have an impact on the environment that lasts forever. We need to do a service to the future community of Tweed and they might not like it."