Lord mayor Sally Capp cleared of wrongdoing in election campaign

"As an independent candidate, I do not have the significant financial backing that's available for major party candidates," the email, authorised by Cr Capp, read.

"Therefore, as in 2018, I will fund my campaign through donations from family, friends and the broader Melbourne community. As in 2018, I will not accept any donations from developers."

Among those who received the email were fellow councillors, including some running against Cr Capp for lord mayor, residents and the media.

A complaint to the Local Government Inspectorate alleged Cr Capp had relied upon a council database to generate the email list.

But acting Chief Municipal Inspector John Lynch said his office's investigation had found no evidence that was the case.

"The investigation concluded there was no identifiable breach of the act, as the email addresses were obtained from publicly available information, using a licensed software program," he said.

"There is no evidence that this information was obtained from council data or property."

A campaign spokeswoman said Cr Capp had maintained from the start that no City of Melbourne databases had been used to compile the list of recipients.

"This confirms that we have acted appropriately," she said.