The face of chaos: Woman who spat in council official's face revealed

The woman who became the face of the chaos that caused a council meeting to be broken up by riot police when she spat in a public servant's face has been revealed as comic illustrator Nicky Minus.

Inner-West Council administrator Richard Pearson said on Wednesday that despite the incident he would not be pressing charges against Ms Minus.

In the moments that followed another man seized Mr Pearson's papers and iPad from him and threw them to the ground with Greens MP Jamie Parker intervening to help escort him out.

The unpleasant scenes took place during the first meeting of the newly formed Inner-West Council on Tuesday night.

According to her Tumblr account Ms Minus' work has appeared in The Lifted Brow, on the covers of cassettes and vinyl, and on posters for Sydney bands.

Her work deals mainly with obscene topics or a sexual nature but also makes statements about female body image.

In a magazine interview Ms Minus says her passion for making filthy comics has led her to be dubbed “the queen of seed” by some people and shared a story where a printer once refused to publish her comic due to its content.

She then describes how she "google stalked the man in question, found his personal email address and sent him a very heartfelt and mean-ish message in which I accused him of being a prude".

"I got my friends to go onto his printing company’s Facebook page and leave bad reviews and zero-star ratings," she told the magazine.

Mr Pearson told 7 News: "I was spat on by an individual, it was unpleasant, it's unwarranted."

"Last night crossed the line from peaceful protest to one that verged on violence."

The riot police were called within minutes of the meeting starting in the Petersham council chambers and it was shutdown on Tuesday night.

Mr Pearson, along with other officials, had to be escorted from the room following the fracas.

As Mr Pearson left one woman, clapping loudly, leaned into him and spat right into his face.

One protester gestured the woman away while another looked on in disgust.

A nearby man was filmed grabbing at Mr Pearson's files and iPad several times before latching on to some and tossing them in the air.

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NSW Greens MP Jamie Parker then intervened to escort Mr Pearson from the room.

Minister for Local Government Paul Toole described it to The Inner West Courier as "disgusting behaviour" and "mob rule", calling on MPs and other representatives present to say whether they supported it.

"Those former councillors and those Members of Parliament who were there ought to come out and say whether or not they endorse the appalling behaviour that occurred last night,” Mr Toole said.

Yahoo7 has contacted Mr Parker for comment.

Darcy Byrne, former Leichardt mayor, told 7 News: "I don't want to see Mr Pearson targeted for the mistakes of Mike Baird."

"The next attempt at an Inner West Council meeting is likely to be here at Leichardt with perhaps a larger police presence as the state government refuses to bring forward fresh council elections."

Activists young and old from neighbouring councils of Ashfield, Leichardt and Marrickville turned out to voice their opposition of their forced amalgamation into one council and the dismissal of their elected representatives.

They were also protesting Premier Mike Baird and the WestConnex road and tunnel project set to be built in the inner west, Australia's largest infrastructure project.

The ousted mayors took over the meeting, after Greens MP Jamie Parker got hold of the microphone and handed it to them.

They declared the inner west would be "ungovernable" unless Premier Baird reinstated them.

When Mr Pearson tried to speak with the sacked mayors, outgoing Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne said: "We will be able to come to the negotiating table when democracy is put on the table".

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The three councils were amalgamated earlier this month, when Premier Baird created 19 new councils across the state with an aim to have councils govern larger areas.

The state government appointed administrators to run the newly created local government areas until new elections are held in September 2017. Some of the sacked mayors and councillors described the move as "undemocratic".

Mr Pearson was one of the appointed administrators and he has since responded to allegations he is serving as a 'Baird government puppet' installed to ensure the WestConnex project is completed.

Mr Pearson held a senior role in the Department of Planning and Environment until 2014. Despite his insistence, he had no oversight of the Westconnex project, as it is seen as a conflict of interest.

Before the meeting Mr Pearson, a resident of Summer Hill, told Fairfax he intended to represent the community by voicing their concerns and felt insulted by allegations he lacked independence.

"That does insult my integrity because you know I'm certainly not anybody's puppet," he said, adding he would represent the community's view.

"The views of the community in the inner west in relation to WestConnex are firstly opposition to the project and it's secondly attempting to get a better deal with the state government with how the project rolls out."

The meeting was supposed to vote on the establishment of a working group representative committee, but the crowd and former councillors prevented it from taking place.