The decision to refund drivers who were fined for entering a Middlesbrough bus lane was made after Ray Mallon became "annoyed" at personally handling complaints relating to the policy, council correspondence reveals.
Emails released to The Gazette under the Freedom of Information Act also detail how the mayor phoned a town hall boss from the Newport Road roundabout to express his anger at the scheme.
Mr Mallon spent 40 minutes on the call to the council's assistant director of environment Tom Punton after watching traffic negotiate the new road layout.
Following the conversation, Mr Punton wrote to other senior officers and said "to say [the mayor] was not happy would be a huge understatement".
A separate email from Sharon Thomas, assistant director of development and planning services, details how the mayor was "quite annoyed as he has been contacted by three people today who have received [penalty charge notices] for using the bus lane".
She went on: "Ray advised Tom that he wants reference to the camera removing from his speech, details of the number of tickets issued so far and all these tickets refunding".
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The bus lane in Newport Road
The bus lane camera was installed last June and drivers received penalty charge notices from late July.
In October, projected income from the camera was included in the mayor's budget proposals for the next financial year, a move which was described as "sickening" to drivers by the RAC.
The measure was removed from Mr Mallon's budget proposals in December, when it was also announced drivers would now receive a warning before being fined and that fines already paid for first offences would be refunded.
At the time, the mayor insisted the council must be "proportionate" in its enforcement policy.
The emails, released to The Gazette, now detail his personal involvement in the U-turn and officers' frustrations at the decision.
The council's highways and transportation manager sets out their belief there are "significant benefits" to the scheme after being asked to suspend the issuing of fines.
And after a final decision from the mayor, an officer states it is "particularly disappointing" as unenforced bus lane restrictions were being ignored by drivers.
Tony Winward 
Middlesbrough Town Hall and Centre Square
A spokesman for Middlesbrough Council said: "It should be fairly obvious that before any new policy is implemented it would be discussed openly and that all involved are able to put forward their views.
“In this case discussions took place over a number of weeks late last year, involving the mayor and officers, which led to a policy of refunding money to motorists who had been fined without warning for driving in Newport Road bus lane.
“The mayor explained this policy and the reasons for it at length to a full council meeting in December, which was widely reported in the media at the time.
"This is all standard practice and selective extracts taken from such a high volume of e-mails cannot be expected to accurately reflect this process.”
Almost 2,000 motorists were fined £60 for entering the bus lane, which was reduced to £30 if they paid within 14 days.
More than £65,000 was originally generated by the camera.
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