Hmmm Complaint (finally) resolved

It's important that councillors don't allow themselves to be so intimidated by Code of Conduct complaints that they stop playing their role as watchdogs over poor administrative practices. Council will consider a report of a Code of Conduct complaint against me by a former Group Manager tomorrow night.

The report (shown below) recommends "no action". Case dismissed. Case closed.

It all started when I questioned anomolies (well, things left out) of Council's Annual Report, see my post from November 2007 and from March 2008.

The Department of Local Government Promoting Better Practice Review Report confirmed what I was saying, but still the administration refused to release the information. Note the memo from the "relieving General Manager" who is the "former Group Manager".

This secrecy around the expenditure of public funds was against the law.

When I questioned the sizeable expenditure of public funds on "training" overseas by two Group Managers (a few days conference in a several week holiday), I was slapped with a Code of Conduct complaint. Well, the actual complaint didn't arrive until late November 2008.

When the complaint was reviewed by an independent reviewer and reported to Council (in accordance with the procedure laid out in the Code of Conduct), Council was slapped with a letter from lawyers and the report was pulled at the last minute.

Around the same time, Council's Annual Report had missed that there was expenditure on overseas trips. Ooops how did that happen?

This kind of action is not new of course. Some interesting points are made in my earlier posts: How far behind is NSW? and Don't be SLAPPed after criticising Council Administration and More slapping than a line dancing convention.

The Group Manager in question is now "former" and the report comes to Council tomorrow night.

So long and thanks for the fish!