Yesterday, upon the stair…

 COUNCIL TO SEEK APOLOGY?

A well placed source within the Charles Sturt Council, who I will refer to  as “Councillor B” in accordance with Council procedures, said that the trivial nature of the Ombudsman’s findings in  relation to suggested “Code of Conduct” violations has been underlined by Council’s dismissal of these recommendations.

(The  recommendations were lodged by the Ombudsman with the relevant Council Officer – the Mayor Kirsten Alexander – in “Opinion 5” of the Ombudsman’s Final Report and ‘named’  Councillors “K: “P” “B” and  “M”.
Council has resolved in an “in confidence” session to take no further action against three councillors. The in confidence session was chaired by Councillor Scheffler as noted in the minutes of meeting:

“Mayor Alexander, Councillors Fitzpatrick, Wasylenko and Agius disclosed an interest in Item 13.12 due to their involvement in aspects of the report to be presented and left the meeting at 11.53 pm.
In absence of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor the CEO took control of the meeting until the appointment of a chairperson.” –COUNCIL MINUTES

Of these four, only the mayor Kirsten Alexander was not a member of council during the time period examined by the Ombudsman.)

Councillor B also stated that the Council might well consider a motion early next year calling for costs to be sought in relation to the legal proceedings undertaken by the previous Council , which might amount to up to  $300,000 (A final tally on these costs had not yet been arrived at)

As part of this possible action regarding legal costs,  Councillor B suggested  that a letter might be drafted to the President of State Parliament’s Legislative  Council, calling for an apology.

Councillor B said that he was not able to disclose the contents of the transcript of his interview with the Ombudsman, and this  made it difficult for him to publicly contest some of the evidence relied upon by the Ombudsman. Councillor B denies forwarding an email from a member of the public to the local MP Mr Michael Atkinson, and added that Mr Atkinson’s staff only received such an email from “a former Councillor”