Misconduct allegation against shire councillor dismissed

AN ALLEGATION of serious misconduct by a Surf Coast Shire councillor made by one of his fellow councillors has been dismissed by a state government panel.

The shire appointed an arbiter in March 2018 to conduct an arbitration of four complaints relating to the shire’s Councillor Code of Conduct by Cr Heather Wellington against Cr David Bell.

This arbitration found Cr Bell (who was mayor at the time) breached the shire’s Councillor Code of Conduct in three of the four complaints. Cr Bell then apologised.

Following this arbitration, Cr Wellington in late 2018 applied under the Local Government Act for a Councillor Conduct Panel to make findings of misconduct and serious misconduct against Cr Bell.

The two-person panel held a hearing in Torquay on June 11 and handed down it decision on July 4.

Cr Wellington made three allegations against Cr Bell to the panel:
• That he had failed to comply with the council’s internal resolution processes by not engaging with the process before the arbiter and thus had engaged in misconduct
• That he had alleged at a council meeting that Cr Wellington had harassed staff over the “FOI issue” and thus engaged in
misconduct, and
• Both these allegations together amounted to bullying, which constituted serious misconduct under the Act.

The panel’s report found the first allegation was not made out, stating “at the time of the process before the arbiter, the respondent (Cr Bell) was too unwell to engage with that process” as he had a medical certificate and needed psychological help at the time.

“He, at no stage, attempted to frustrate the process.”

Regarding the second allegation, the panel stated that Cr Bell “made no direct allegation that staff were being harassed”, but as Cr Wellington “was the one in email contact with staff, she felt that the comments were directed at her”.

“It may have been preferable for the respondent to speak privately about the concerns of council officers to the applicant,
but it was a matter of interest to all councillors.”

As neither the first nor second allegations were made out, the panel likewise dismissed the third complaint.

On Tuesday, both Cr Bell and Cr Wellington said they accepted the panel’s findings.

To read the full decision, head to localgovernment.vic.gov.au/councilg o v e r n a n c e / c o u n c i l l o r – c o n d u c t -framework-and-councillor-conductpanels.