More than 200 people have signed the paper petition in less than a week, calling for City of Newcastle chief executive Jeremy Bath to step down from his $513,000-a-year job.

The petition was organised by vocal council critics Newcastle Maritime Museum Society president Bob Cook, Newcastle East Residents Group spokeswoman Christine Everingham and former Hamilton Business Chamber president Nathan Errington, along with council's former interim chief executive Frank Cordingley.

Mr Cook was a former councillor and Mr Errington and Mr Cordingley have both stood for election to the council.

The petition asks the NSW Parliament's lower house, the Legislative Assembly, to request Mr Bath's resignation.

Mr Bath has been under fire since July last year when a Newcastle Herald investigation revealed his link to a misleading letter to the editor writing campaign under the name of his best friend, Scott Neylon, who has lived in Japan for decades.

Mr Neylon is married to a Japanese woman, and according to a list of his teaching experience from his company's website, has been teaching in Japan since at least 1998.

Mr Bath has repeatedly denied any involvement in the letters.

"We have no confidence in the robustness of that internal investigation or its findings," the petition reads.

"We have lost trust in the CEO and the ability of City of Newcastle to properly manage this matter."

On Thursday, Mr Bath took aim at the petition organisers, saying they had an axe to grind due to previous and ongoing disputes with the council.

At the same time, he praised his efforts as chief executive and provided a long list of achievements under his leadership.

He said the council's financial position had "never been stronger", complaints were the lowest they had been in 30 years and development application times had dropped 30 per cent over the past three years.

"The overwhelming feedback I've had from people over the past few months is their boredom with the continued campaign being run against me," Mr Bath said.

"Our city is arguably improving year by year, and most people would much rather celebrate our shared successes than participate in smear campaigns."

But the petition organisers strongly disagree with Mr Bath's assessment.

Mr Cook, a target of the Neylon letters due to his involvement with the maritime museum, said community concerns about the lack of transparency around the letters had fallen on deaf ears.

The former Newcastle independent councillor, who has been in a long-running dispute with Mr Bath over the future of the maritime museum collection, a matter which is due to be debated at next week's council meeting, said there was a feeling across the city that it was time for the council boss to go.

The Herald reported on Thursday that Mr Cook was involved in a notice of motion, rejected by senior council staff, which was put forward by Liberal councillor Katrina Wark calling for Mr Bath to be suspended over the letters.

"It appears Jeremy has no intention of standing down, and lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes has no intention of sacking him," Mr Cook said.

"This petition has been in evolution ever since the announcement of the investigation results.

"When Jeremy was cleared, immediately from that time on, people said we had to do something."

In a statement issued late on Thursday night, Cr Nelmes did not answer questions about her continuing support for Mr Bath as CEO, or the petition, instead saying she was "not interested in engaging in campaigns that publicly denigrate our staff".

"I don't support trial by media or political smear campaigns that involve any of our staff," she said.

"We have over 1000 dedicated employees delivering 45 different services for our community. They work together to ensure our city is maintained, beautified, and remains the home we are proud of."

A City of Newcastle spokesperson said "the performance of the CEO is a matter for the elected council and is on the agenda at the 27 February meeting".

"The CEO's performance is benchmarked against a variety of KPIs in the areas of leadership and deliverables and these KPIs will be discussed at the February council meeting."

Mr Bath has denied any involvement in the Neylon letter-writing campaign, which spans 13 years and appears to follow his career progression, attacks his critics and supports his employers.

An investigation by consultant Pinnacle Integrity found there was no evidence to substantiate allegations that Mr Bath directly contributed to the letters or revealed confidential information to Mr Neylon.

The Herald was not contacted as part of the investigation, meaning the investigator did not access all 19 letters received by the Herald over nine years, many of which remain unpublished.

Rank-and-file Labor members have called on their party colleagues on Newcastle council to release the confidential investigation report and Mr Bath has said he wants it made public.

Newcastle council says it is continuing to work through legal hurdles to releasing the full report.

The Herald understands continued disquiet over Mr Bath's link to the letters and the council's failure, so far, to release the report were factors in the historic Labor preselection battle, which took place last weekend and claimed the political career of Carol Duncan.

The remaining six incumbent Labor councillors survived the preselection contests.

Mr Cook, who lodged a code of conduct complaint against Mr Bath over the letters, said the organising committee was aiming to get at least 500 signatures on the paper petition.

The group then plans to ask Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery, who has been at war with the council over the "privatisation" of the city's inland pools and the letters, to present it to Parliament.

In November, Ms Hornery used parliamentary privilege to call for Mr Bath to be sacked, declaring the council boss had authored the Neylon letters and "shamefully abused" his job funded by Newcastle ratepayers.

Mr Bath denies any involvement.

Four of the five most recent letters received by the Herald under the name Scott Neylon have waged an angry campaign against Ms Hornery.

Others attacked fellow Hunter Labor MPs, community groups and residents.

Mr Cook said the community deserved open and transparent governance.

"There's more than a dozen or so people out there circulating the petition and there are many people I know who have signed it already," he said.

Dr Everingham, who was a vocal critic of the Newcastle Supercars and was previously banned from council premises for a year, said the petition was circulating through community and residents' groups because people had "no faith" in the Pinnacle Integrity investigation.

"We obviously haven't seen it, but the scope that we've seen of the Pinnacle report was far too narrow to satisfy any of us," she said.

"Because this is a paper petition it's going to take a bit of time, but it's well under way."

A Pinnacle Integrity spokeswoman previously said "the evidence relating to the matters under inquiry were sufficiently and thoroughly investigated in accordance with the procedures".

In accordance with the council's code of conduct policy, all of the investigation and its deliberations were held in secret.

Mr Cordingley, who served as interim council chief executive before Mr Bath was appointed and is vice-president of the Newcastle Maritime Museum Society, said he was concerned about lack of transparency on the Neylon investigation and blowouts in the cost of major projects including the Newcastle Art Gallery and South Newcastle Beach skate park.

"We have to do something, and this is one thing we can do. We can't just sit back and watch it all happen without having a voice," he said.

"We want people to take a hard look at what is going on so change takes place for the better of the city."

Mr Bath said Mr Cordingley and Mr Cook's involvement in the petition was an attempt to "get square" due to the dispute over the maritime museum collection.

"Mr Cook and Mr Cordingley sit on the committee of the Newcastle Maritime Museum Society, whose collection has been funded by council for six years since the Maritime Centre closed in 2018," he said.

"Last month both men were informed that City of Newcastle intends to cease this funding in 12 months' time. They have strongly objected to this decision."

Donna.page@newcastleherald.com.au