TWO Campaspe Shire councillors who took to Facebook to air their frustrations over council’s proposed investment in tourism have breached multiple codes of conduct, an investigation has found.
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Councillors Leigh Wilson and Daniel Mackrell took to their public Facebook pages after the August 20 council meeting where Cr Wilson put forward a notice of motion for a council policy and strategy review.
The motion had no objectors, however, during the discussion fellow councillors called a point of order when Cr Wilson was discussing information not believed to be relevant to the original motion
The information in question was regarding a funding commitment from council to Echuca Moama Tourism for about $900,000 throughout the next three years.
When Cr Wilson mentioned the funding arrangement — which was considered confidential — a point of order was called by fellow councillors. He then took to Facebook to air his frustrations in two videos on his public page — the first under the guise of “seeking guidance from the community” and the second to detail the proposed funding agreement. However, the sticking point for investigators was that it was possible for Cr Wilson to draw the community’s attention to the proposed funding arrangements without suggesting mayor Adrian Weston was acting in an underhand manner.
In Cr Wilson’s submission for the conduct hearing, he stated it was “well-known (that) there is a four/five split amongst the councillors” and that he was acting in the interests of transparency.
He suggested that given the split, he had no alternative but to turn to social media to express his frustration at mayor Adrian Weston’s actions when the point of order was called.
At the hearing, Cr Wilson reiterated none of the fellow councillors who filed a code of conduct breach approached him about the first or second Vlog, nor asked him to take them down.
He was found to be in breach of council’s social media policy and councillor behaviour.
Cr Mackrell was found to be in breach of council’s social media, councillor behaviour and media relations policies for his posts to his public page and for approaching the media to comment on the funding proposal.
Investigators found the language used by Cr Mackrell was “inflammatory”.
“He went beyond drawing the public’s attention to the council meeting and instead suggested the mayor was unprofessional, un-Australian and had ‘gone too far’,” the report stated.
The reports were before council to be noted at Tuesday night’s meeting.
