Cr Rudge appeared on the ABC TV current affairs program 7.30, alleging Cr Bourke was involved in an attempt to blackmail her into resigning from Bathurst Regional Council.

It is alleged the then mayor asked a Bathurst op shop volunteer to address an envelope to Cr Rudge, which was later mailed to her home. The envelope contained a letter calling on her to resign or her past mental health issues would be exposed.

After the program aired, Cr Bourke stepped down as mayor and said: "The allegations against me of bullying and threatening are wholly denied and are the subject of a police investigation."

READ MORE: Mayor Bobby Bourke resigns following TV program's allegations of bullying

But Cr Rudge says stepping down as mayor is not enough.

"This council really needs to step up and address this situation and do something about it, because this does not pass the pub test," she said.

"... He should be stepping down altogether. How can you have confidence in somebody that has covered this up all of this period of time without saying anything? How can you have confidence in a leader in your community that got themselves involved in something like this and not said anything?"

Cr Bourke told the Western Advocate on Monday he not only denies allegations of bullying and threatening, but also allegations of blackmail.

"It's not blackmail. I deny blackmail and I leave it up to the police investigations," Cr Bourke said.

Cr Rudge is frustrated that a notice of motion of no confidence in Cr Bourke - lodged by Cr Jess Jennings and supported by councillors Rudge and John Fry - won't be dealt with prior to Wednesday's mayoral election.

She alleged that acting mayor Ian North scheduled the notice of motion for Thursday to shore up his votes in the mayoral election, saying "obviously they want Cr Bourke in there to vote."

Cr North denied her claims, saying he scheduled the meetings after receiving advice from Bathurst council's general manager David Sherley and an unnamed general manager from another council area.

"Cr Jennings didn't contact me at all, nor ring me or anything. I make that very clear, he did everything through David [Sherley]. His letter was a demand and I said to David, 'If he wishes to talk to me about it, contact me'. He hasn't done that," Cr North said.

"David told him that his advice to me would be that you hold your mayoral meeting first and I also felt that the mayoral meeting first was the way to go and that decision was made.

"... I also have a number of other general managers in the state that I talk to and I spoke to one of them about it and he was of the same opinion. He said that you should get your mayor in place so you have a mayor in place to deal with the notice of motion, as you would normally have in any meeting, not an acting mayor."

Cr North said that based on media reports, he was likely to be the only candidate for the mayoral position so having Cr Bourke in the chamber would not affect the outcome.

He said it was up to each councillor if they would support or oppose a vote of no confidence in Cr Bourke on Thursday.

"It looks like [the mayoral vote] is unanimous ... I don't think it will be unanimous on the notice of motion," he said.

Cr Bourke says he will not resign and intends to run for re-election in September.

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