Former Sydney councillor Ned Attie says a local businessman who testified Mr Attie had made threats on his life contradicted this account by telling him he was in fact being threatened by the Mehajer family.
The ongoing inquiry into Auburn Council, the political home of Salim Mehajer, returned to an alleged threat made by Mr Attie towards his friend and local businessman, Warren Jack.
In testimony this week, Mr Jack claimed Mr Attie had tried to "extort" $200,000 from him over breakfast to clear up problems relating to his building works on a property he was renovating on Lidcombe's Henry Street.
But Mr Attie denied entirely his friend's recount of the breakfast, down to the meal choice.
"I don't eat muffins," he said. "That conversation never took place."
Mr Attie has also denied that he threatened Mr Jack with "a visit from a man named Zod", which Mr Jack had interpreted as an implied threat of murder.
Mr Jack had earlier testified that he had been told by a third party at a meeting with Mr Attie that Mr Zod was the "big guy ... [who] walks behind Mehajer ... they take what they want", and a "bikie".
On Wednesday, Mr Attie admitted knowing Mr Zod, but only by reputation.
"I know of Zod, I don't know Zod," he said. "Zod is a person who's like a bouncer, a bodyguard."
Mr Attie testified that he remained friendly with Mr Jack, including at their last chance encounter, in a shopping centre in north-western Sydney.
At that meeting, Mr Attie testified, Mr Jack told him he was in fact being threatened by "the Mehajers".
Mr Mehajer will be called before the inquiry later this week.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Paul Bolster, had earlier put to Mr Attie that he had moved at council a motion drafted originally by a local banker and property developer.
Farwaz Sankari was proposing to build up to 250 apartments on Silverwater's Grey Street, in a proposal that faced being watered down because it conflicted with the council's employment land policy.
At a council meeting on October 7 last year, Mr Attie moved to amend the strategy to rezone the site that carried with a majority vote of council.
Mr Attie did not deny that the motion may have drawn on text drafted by the developer, but he said he believed the proposal would benefit the local community and had been first proposed years before the amendment.
"I do the bidding [of] the community," Mr Attie said.
All nine councillors – including deputy mayor Salim Mehajer – were sacked in February, and the Auburn local government area was folded into Parramatta Council and the newly formed Cumberland Council.
Earlier, former council planner Glenn Francis avoided answering a question about a change to a planning document that benefited former councillor Ronney Oueik after his legal counsel invoked the right to avoid self-incrimination and increasing his risk of future prosecution.
Commissioner Richard Beasley, QC, found that Mr Francis could not be compelled to answer questions.
