While the four were a minority on council last term, the election of the two new Napier councillors means the group's position on council, and subsequently the stance of council on a number of issues, has changed significantly.
According to Local Government New Zealand chief executive Malcolm Alexander, councillors are allowed to meet outside of council, however their meetings have been labelled "problematic" by those councillors not included.
Yesterday Wairoa councillor Fenton Wilson - the former council chairman - said he had no issue with the fact the two Napier councillors were meeting with "the Heretaunga caucus".
However, he said if the group were reaching a consensus, or making decisions before meetings, "that's very dangerous".
"The only thing that people need to be careful of is when they meet as a majority of councillors before a meeting and reach consensus on something, [is that] the decision could be challenged with a judicial review," he said. "I think that that's the danger in the Romans meeting".
He also noted it was "very hard" for the wards not represented at these informal meetings - Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay - to "get our view registered and across if decisions have been made around someone's kitchen table on a Sunday by a majority of councillors".
This was echoed by Central Hawke's Bay councillor Debbie Hewitt, who said "regional council leadership should be inclusive of all the districts, Central Hawke's Bay and Wairoa, and anything to the contrary of that is quite frankly disappointing".
"They're quite entitled to their secret meetings but if its pre-meditation and collusion that's not healthy in regional governance."
Napier councillor Alan Dick could not be reached for comment last night.
Last term there were reports the four were not included in discussions about the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme - they began referring to themselves as "Mushrooms" as they said they were being "kept in the dark and fed lots of manure" about it.
While the council stance on the review and other matters has shifted with the new council, any concerns of the group of six reaching consensus prior to council meetings has been denied by Mr Graham.
The group did meet periodically to discuss issues, but he said they had "never once made a firm decision".
"You can see it in our voting record that we quite often vote against each other," he said. "We have never pre-determined any decision and our voting record points to that".
When asked for examples of this, Mr Graham cited his suggestion for an upgrade of the council chambers, which was rejected.
"We have never consistently voted together, unlike the group that have never wavered in their support of the dam," he said.
Mr Wilson said while the group had worked hard to establish the other councillors as "the gang of five", they had not been caucusing or pre-determining decisions.
"All the Ruataniwha decisions ...I just took everyone as an individual decision on the way," he said. "I took every meeting I chaired as, I didn't know what the outcome was going to be, and that's democracy to me."
Mr Graham said there was "no particular reason" why the three other councillors had not been included.
"It's just that the group that was for the newly elected councillors and the old Mushrooms."
On the meetings, Mr Barker said "if people want to sit down and have a discussion about matters, even if they're about council, they should be free to do so".
He said a proposal for a councillors-only session prior to council meetings was a positive move.
This comes after a heated council meeting yesterday, when the "Romans" group was referenced after Ms Hewitt expressed concern she was not able to officially suggest people to be appointed to the HBRIC board.
This followed another item in which a suggestion to appoint Mr Wilson as an additional member of the Capital Structure Review advisory committee was opposed by the six councillors.
Included in the review's scope would be Napier Port, including discussion on its future ownership. Currently, the only council members on the committee are Mr Graham and Mr Kirton.
Mr Graham said "Romans" referred to his interest in Roman History, and a satirical column from Mr Belford's publication BayBuzz.