EXCLUSIVE
All nine of Frankston’s councillors may be forced to stand down next month due to an administrative blunder.
Councillors across Victoria had until 4 July at the latest to sign a revised councillor code of conduct but Frankston councillors’ signatures were not witnessed by council CEO Dennis Hovenden as stipulated by the Local Government Act.
The Times understands the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate advised several councils across the state this week that documentation submitted to the inspectorate failed to meet Section 63 of the Act.
The revised code of conduct for councillors, introduced by the state government as part of a review of the Local Government Act 1989, discourages councillors from making personal attacks on each other and sets out the process for dealing with bad behaviour.
There are no exceptions within the legislation that make allowances for councillors who fail to make a declaration in time.
If all councillors at any council are effectively sacked the state government could appoint administrators to run council affairs.
Frankston Council and the inspectorate refused to comment when asked if any councils, including Frankston, had submitted documents not witnessed by their top executive.
Mr Hovenden referred The Times to a statement previously given when asked if any Frankston councillors had failed to sign the revised code of conduct within the state government’s deadline.
“The Local Government Inspectorate is auditing each council in Victoria for their compliance under the Local Government Act 1989. Council has provided information to the inspectorate to assist, and we now await the outcome of the audit,” Mr Hovenden said in the statement.
He declined to provide any further comment.
“To do so could potentially undermine the integrity of the Local Government Inspectorate audit process currently underway.”
The inspectorate also refused to comment about Frankston’s apparent clerical error when completing the amended code of conduct documentation.
Inspectorate chief municipal inspector David Wolf previously said: “The Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate is the integrity agency for local government in Victoria.
“The inspectorate is currently assessing all 79 Victorian councils for compliance with the councillor code of conduct requirements following recent amendments to the legislation.
“We expect to complete this analysis by 12 August and it is not appropriate to comment on specific cases until this analysis is complete.
“The inspectorate will follow a process to communicate the finding to councils, councillors and the community.”
Frankston’s municipal neighbours, Kingston Council and Mornington Peninsula Shire, ensured all councillors’ signatures were witnessed by councils’ respective CEOs.
Despite being stood down, any councillors disqualified from councils from 1 September for not signing the revised code of conduct will be able to nominate to stand as candidates in council elections held on 22 October.
This article will be published in the 8 July 2016 edition of the Frankston Times
3 Comments
So you’re telling me the VEC would waste taxpayers money to investigate and sack 9 Councillors that will ALL have to stand down in a few weeks anyway? And all this because its alleged one Councillor didn’t sign the paperwork on time? Have we gone mad? Is Political Correctness overtaking common sense and good judgement? It would seem so!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for accountability and transparency, but surely given all the media attention of recent events, can we really expect to see any Councillor breach the new CoC?
Maybe I have more faith in our Council than others, but I see this as nothing more than a waste of money and resources pursuing this matter at this moment in time.
This is a state government stuff up as a result of which councillors of up to 12 councils would have to be disqualified for life!!! The Minister must bring in an urgent amendment to fix another Labor mess. Decisions taken by affected councils could have dramatic impact on ratepayers .
A Code of Conduct? Hooray! At Last! This should have been introduced to all Councils ages ago,.. So many Councils are out of touch with their ratepayers and are simply incompetent, look at Casey Council for example. What a joke!