TENS of thousands of dollars of ratepayers’ money has been spent investigating several code of conduct complaints by Frankston councillors against fellow councillors in the past few months.
Lawyers have been paid by Frankston Council on at least three occasions to hear evidence and make rulings on internal complaints about some councillors’ comments on social media and to the press.
Councillors Darrel Taylor and Suzette Tayler were found to have breached council’s code of conduct by legal representatives called in by council.
The two councillors made comments on Facebook ruled to be in breach of council’s conduct code and must now apologise to fellow councillors.
Both said they were unable to comment on the specifics of code of conduct investigations but they believed complaints lodged against them were due to “speaking out” about other councillors’ behaviour.
The latest legal bills follow $15,000 paid by council for an independent councillor conduct panel hearing in May, convened by the Municipal Association of Victoria.
That panel found Cr Colin Hampton breached Local Government Act code of conduct clauses over the way he spoke to two council employees in public in a “threatening” manner at a function in Frankston.
It is understood ratepayers have also effectively paid lawyers for investigations in recent months where councillors were cleared of breaching council’s code of conduct amid a flurry of complaints against other councillors lodged in the wake of Cr Hampton’s code of conduct breach.
Complaints against councillors Taylor and Tayler were formally made by mayor Cr James Dooley.
Cr Dooley told The Times in July a meeting, held behind closed doors, attended by just five out of nine councillors to formulate a social media policy for councillors was not aimed at restricting freedom of speech.
He said that meeting was about allowing councillors to communicate on social media sites without bringing council into disrepute.
The mayor had already lodged complaints about comments made on Facebook by the two councillors before the confidential July meeting.
Cr Dooley said councillors could comment online but needed to make it clear they were expressing a personal opinion since they are not official spokespeople for council (“Social media comments ‘unacceptable’”, The Times 18/7/16).
Cr Dooley, designated official council spokesperson as mayor, refused to comment last week when asked about the cost of the recent code of conduct investigations.
A statement from council CEO Dennis Hovenden was provided but he also refused to confirm how much code of conduct investigations had cost Frankston ratepayers.
“Code of conduct matters remain confidential in order to ensure the integrity of the investigative process. As such, council cannot respond to any questions.”
The July meeting to talk about a council policy for councillors’ comments on social media sites was attended by Crs Dooley, Hampton, Glenn Aitken, Brian Cunial and Sandra Mayer.
Crs Taylor, Tayler, Rebekah Spelman and Michael O’Reilly were not present at the meeting.
