Councillor Juliet Arkwright put forward a motion to form a working group of councillors to review the process for determining who gets the top job.

But the message behind her motion seemed lost as the debate skewed towards the controversial hat draw, in which Councillor Ken Halstead overthrew Cr Duncan Gair as mayor.

With Councillor Graham McLaughlin overseas at the time, councillors were left deadlocked, a situation Cr Gair maintains could have been avoided if councillors had been willing to find a date when all could be present.

Looking straight at his successor on Tuesday night, Cr Gair described the September 22 election as a "debacle".

"The sad thing is councillors chose not to work together to elect you (Cr Halstead)," Cr Gair said.

Deputy mayor Larry Whipper quickly interjected.

"Point of order ... this sounds like nothing but grandstanding," Cr Whipper said.

But Cr Gair pressed on.

"Call it what you want, it's the truth," he said. "In all my time on council we have never not had a full complement to elect the mayor.

"What happened to me, I don't believe is the right way for a mayor to be elected."

Cr Halstead pointed back at his efforts to find a date for all nine to be present for the election.

"I have allowed some leeway here ... I'm not saying you (Cr Gair) are a sore loser, though some people probably would," Cr Halstead said.

Councillors resolved to form the working group to discuss options for how future mayoral elections are conducted.

A report will come back to the council early next year.