Hostilities between Hurstville Council and Local Government Minister Paul Toole have escalated dramatically with the council giving the minister until 5pm Wednesday to withdraw his notice to suspend the council. If he doesn't, the council is going to seek an injunction to stop him.

"Council requires your written confirmation by 5pm today [Wednesday] … If this is not received I am instructed to commence legal proceedings in the Land and Environment Court seeking urgent injunctive relief and costs," said the council's lawyer Dr Lindsay Taylor in a letter to the minister.

The council was notified late on Friday afternoon that the minister intended to suspend it for a three-month period and would install an administrator.

The shock move was prompted by last week's sacking of the general manager Victor Lampe.

Mr Toole said on Friday that an ongoing investigation into Hurstville Council "has identified what appear to be numerous failures of the required standard of governance and legal compliance".

He also said that the summary dismissal of Mr Lampe as well as other "serious issues" have raised concerns about the functioning of Hurstville council.

On Tuesday night the council overturned its decision to sack Mr Lampe who has been suspended on full pay since May. At the time of his suspension Mr Lampe's staff had recommended that then mayor Cr Con Hindi be fined and prosecuted over repeated failures to clean up asbestos on his development property in Mortdale.

Cr Hindi and his backers, who have the numbers in the council, claim that Mr Lampe's suspension related to unrelated allegations of misconduct and have nothing to do with the push to prosecute Cr Hindi.

In his letter to the minister and Chris Rowe, the senior investigator for the Office of Local Government, Dr Taylor complained that the notice of intention to suspend the council was "vague and uncertain".

"For example, what erosion of public confidence has occurred?" wrote Dr Taylor.

Dr Taylor said in his letter that if the minister pushed ahead with the move to suspend the council, detailed reasons would have to be supplied to the council.

Those reasons had to be given "precisely and unambiguously and in sufficient detail" to enable the council to respond to the minister's concerns.

He concluded with the threat that if the minister did not announce by 5pm that he was withdrawing the notice to suspend the council, the council would, in effect, see him in court.

Cr Michelle Stevens, an independent, was one of only three councillors who opposed this course of action.

Cr Stevens expressed concern about the potential cost to ratepayers given that Dr Taylor's letter said a senior and junior barrister had been retained to prosecute the council's case.

Cr Stevens noted that the ratepayers had already forked out $38,000 for a KMPG report into who was responsible for a series of anonymous poison pen emails making allegations of corruption, cronyism and sexual impropriety against certain councillors and staff.

The report has not been made public.

She said her constituents were "totally supportive" of the move to suspend the council and had expressed concerns about development issues and the dysfunction of the council.

Cr Vince Badalati said he fully supported the minister's concerns about restoring community confidence, "however I want our submission to detail all the facts".

"I am fully aware this has been a most difficult time for the Hurstville community and I want to express that as mayor my objective is to move the council in a more positive new direction and ensure the council moves forward with good governance, and transparency so that the long-term vision for Hurstville City can be achieved."

Fairfax Media has sought comments from Minister Toole.