A COUNCILLOR who plans to write to Victorian Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins about “ensuring a minimum level of input from councillors elected to office” has been forced to defend his own contribution at Frankston Council.
Deputy mayor Cr Glenn Aitken told councillors at this month’s public council meeting that he would be writing to Ms Hutchins seeking a change to the Local Government Act despite his colleagues narrowly voting against the proposal (‘Councillors’ work questioned’, The Times 16/2/15).
Meetings attendance rates have become a sensitive topic between councillors amid claims some councillors feel “bullied” at behind the scenes councillors briefing sessions (‘Councillors ‘feel bullied’’, The Times 26/1/15).
After Cr Aitken’s suggestion that council write to the minister was voted down, discussion moved on to councillors’ attendance at briefings where council officers provide information to councillors about issues to be voted on at public council meetings.
Councillors unanimously agreed to include individual councillors’ briefings attendance figures in future annual reports.
An analysis of councillors’ briefings attendance records shows Cr Aitken attended just 20 out of 54 briefings in 2013, by far the lowest level of attendance compared to his fellow councillors.
Cr Aitken told The Times he decided not to attend some briefings that year due to “the appalling attitude shown to me by a couple of councillors”.
“I was very unpopular within council [that year]. At times I’m unpopular because I say it like it is and a lot of people don’t want to hear that.”
He said some councillors had made “extremely demeaning” comments to him in 2013.
Ironically, councillors, including Rebekah Spelman, Michael O’Reilly and Suzette Tayler, now say they have not felt comfortable when attending briefings this year due to an alleged “toxic environment”.
Cr Aitken said the briefings statistics do not reflect the numerous meetings, “several hundred” a year, he calls and holds with residents about particular subjects requiring action by council.
Council records show Cr Aitken attended 47 of 65 briefings in 2014, the third lowest attendance rate of Frankston’s nine councillors.
“I’m pushing the issue of people making input … when you’ve got councillors who are not attending briefings and are not doing anything else visible in the community, there is a major problem,” he said.
“If a councillor is missing a number of briefings but they’re clearly and visibly doing other things in the community I don’t have a problem with that.”
He acknowledged it is not a councillor’s responsibility to monitor their fellow councillors’ “input”, adding “to some degree it is”.
“If you’ve got councillors who’re doing a conscientious job … [but have] others who totally under perform, that just can’t go on.
“Other councillors have focused very heavily on the briefings records. I have focused on input.
“Anyone in council who wants to point the finger at me needs to be very careful because I have the documented evidence over 11 years in this council … which carry my meetings into the thousands mark.”
Debate about councillors’ commitment to their roles as elected representatives of their community led to councillors shouting at each other across the council chamber last month amid “bullying” claims and counter claims.
