During Tuesday's meeting, councillor Steve Morris said he wanted to know whether Downtown Tauranga had used its resources for a mayoral contender in their campaign "because Downtown Tauranga is a rates-funded organisation and I've been told ... there has been improper use of those funds".
Morris yesterday told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend he raised the issue with the electoral officer.
Electoral officer Warwick Lampp said he had looked into the concerns about the email and found no electoral rules were broken. He did not plan to take any further action.
He said it was not his role to consider whether there was a conflict of interest.
Cooke yesterday said any candidate could ask for such an email to be sent on their behalf, and rejected any suggestion of unethical or biased behaviour as "unfounded and untrue", saying Downtown Tauranga was an apolitical organisation.
Cooke said she was pleased that, as she had always believed, Downtown Tauranga had acted ethically.
She said she drew clear lines between her work on the campaign, and Downtown Tauranga. Tuskany had worked with candidates on the last three elections without issue.
"I will continue to defend our integrity and ethical approach to what we do."
She said she would welcome an apology.
However she believed the best apology would be if the council could "stay on topic" when Downtown Tauranga presented at council meetings and stick to the issues the organisation was trying to bring to its attention regarding the CBD, and avoid the "political sideshow".
No other candidates had yet asked to make use of the Downtown database, she said.
Morris said he would accept Lampp's determination on the electoral rules. Whether there was a conflict of interest or not was for Cooke and the Downtown Tauranga board to determine, not him, he said.
He said that even the perception of a conflict could be damaging in an election, and his advice was the easiest way to avoid such a perception was to step back from one of the roles.
Brownless said the electoral officer's determination did not settle the issue for him, and the Downtown Tauranga board needed to make a call on whether the email crossed the line.
"That has nothing to do with the Electoral Act."
He said the issue was not Cooke working for a campaign and Downtown Tauranga - that had happened before - but the organisation sending an email on behalf of a candidate whose campaign Cooke was managing.
He said he raised the concerns in a council meeting on behalf of all candidates in order to have a level playing field.
It was Downtown Tauranga drawing the CBD issues into an election campaign, not him, he said.
Downtown Tauranga chairman Brian Berry has been approached for comment.
Julie Hammon, a Downtown Tauranga board member, was not aware of whether or not the board had or would specifically consider whether the email constituted a conflict of interest as she had not been in touch for a couple of days.
As far as she knew, the board was 100 per cent behind Cooke and confident in her ability to remain apolitical.
