But Newcastle City Council says it will not investigate the incident.

Cr Church told the Newcastle Herald that a workshop facilitator had asked councillors and staff to fill out an online questionnaire about their aspirations for the planning day.

Participants had to hit a “submit” button and their answers were projected onto a screen at the front of the room.

Cr Church said he had sat “shocked and numb” when some of the first words to appear on the screen were: “John Church f—-wit.”

He said the facilitator apparently had not seen the words and was about to move on with the morning’s agenda when Cr Kath Elliott had intervened.

“She said, ‘Excuse me. Are we going to ignore the fact that someone has called John Church a f—-wit? This does not underpin collaboration,’” Cr Church said.

Cr Elliott confirmed this version of events.

The words “Newcastle Herald rattled” appeared on the screen some time later.

Cr Church was quoted in a report in Saturday’s Herald questioning the $10,000 cost of the workshop, which was held at Shoal Bay Country Club and included overnight accommodation on Saturday.

Cr Church said he had chosen not to stay overnight at the resort on principle and had driven to the workshop on Saturday morning.

He and fellow independent Cr Elliott have clashed regularly with Labor councillors about council spending, especially in regards to Supercars, the council’s office move to Newcastle West and the backlog of infrastructure repairs and maintenance in the city.

Cr Church said he had asked chief executive officer Jeremy Bath to investigate Saturday’s incident and seek signed affidavits from everyone present.

When approached for comment on Monday, Mr Bath said in a statement council would not investigate the incident.

“The facilitator has confirmed that the software used at the workshop doesn’t allow contributors to be identified,” he said.

Read more: Newcastle council’s strategic planning meeting at Shoal Bay

“As such, council will not be investigating the 20 people in the room which would cost ratepayers several thousand dollars with no likelihood of a satisfactory finding.

“The incident didn’t impact on discussions throughout the day that will help guide the strategic direction of the council over the coming years.”

Three councillors, deputy mayor Declan Clausen, Labor colleague Jason Dunn and independent Allan Robinson, were not at the workshop.

Cr Church said the other 10 councillors, several senior council directors and several support staff had been in the room at the time.

He said he had told Mr Bath on Sunday that “without a formal inquiry everyone in the room is a suspect”.

“Whoever is responsible for this abuse needs to come clean and apologise to the council staff and councillors for their inappropriate behaviour,” Cr Church told the Herald.

“If the abuser fails to take ownership of their behaviour and are later found out, they should resign from council as this goes to their lack of character and suitability to represent the city and ratepayers.

“They would also be identified as liars and therefore not to be considered a trustworthy person.

“Bullying and calling people such vile names is not tolerated in any workplace, and council should be no different.”

He said the person responsible was a “coward” and would have known their words would appear on the screen.

“There was no attempt by the leadership to apologise or take a public stand against this kind of bullying and defamatory behaviour,” Cr Church said.

Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said on Monday she was “not interested in John Church’s muck raking”.

“I’ve seen this lowest common denominator behaviour from his ilk over the years,” Cr Nelmes said.

“I’m focused on delivering for the people of Newcastle together with my Labor colleagues who have a vision for the smart and sustainable future of our city.”

Cr Elliott said the incident was an example of a “disgusting” tolerance of bullying at Newcastle council.

“I think really we should have a climate were we have constructive and positive discourse, not bullying,” she said.

“I thought someone would pipe up and nobody did.

“I would have felt very uncomfortable if I hadn’t called it out.”

Cr Elliott said she and Cr Church continued their participation in the workshop after the incident.

The Herald contacted each of the councillors who attended on Saturday morning, all of whom denied being responsible for the slur against Cr Church.

Labor councillors Carol Duncan, Peta Winney-Baartz and Emma White each said they did not condone the incident, while Cr Matt Byrne said it was “a particularly unsavoury comment”.

“I would probably call Mr Church a lot of things but wouldn’t stoop that low,” Cr Byrne said.

Cr Duncan said the on-screen insult was “pretty ordinary behaviour”.

Cr Duncan, Cr White and Cr Winney-Baartz also took aim at Cr Church’s comments about the cost of the workshop, which were published on Saturday.

“I thought Cr Church’s comments about the workshop … were malicious and completely unwarranted,” Cr Duncan told the Herald.

Cr Winney-Baartz also said Cr Church’s comments were “malicious” and that she had found the workshop “incredibly valuable”.

Cr White said the workshop was a reasonable expense and she thought it was “interesting that after the [Saturday] article appeared this has come out”.

Cr Byrne said professional development “goes with the territory” of being on council.

Greens councillor John Mackenzie said the slur was “childish and unnecessary” and that it undermined a spirit of collaboration, which he said was the aim of the workshop.

Liberal councillor Brad Luke said he was surprised when the words appeared on the screen.

But he said the incident “fits exactly with how the council tends to react to certain councillors at the moment”.

Independent councillor Andrea Rufo said he was “completely gobsmacked” by the insult.

“I was dumbfounded,” Cr Rufo said.

“I was thinking to myself ‘why hasn’t the facilitator said anything?’ To her credit, Cr Elliott spoke up and asked the question.

“It’s childish but it’s embarrassing also – we had just finished talking about collaboration.”

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