Adelaide City Council to push for tougher penalties for misbehaving Crs
A local council riddled by infighting for more than a year will start a push for continually misbehaving councillors to be booted from council.
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Continually misbehaving councillors and mayors would be kicked out of local government under an Adelaide City Council proposal to strengthen code of conduct penalties.
The council wants elected members with three proven Code of Conduct complaints to be immediately removed from office for the remainder of their term.
Under the State Government’s proposed reforms, misbehaving councillors would only be sin-binned for up to three months.
Adelaide Deputy Lord Mayor Alexander Hyde said the “three-strikes policy” would address serious behavioural issues across the sector.
“If you repeatedly breach the Local Government Act, you should not be serving in Local Government – it is a fairly simple concept,” Cr Hyde said.
“It will go a long way in reinstalling faith in the code of conduct process and also fixing member behaviour across in South Australia.”
The code requires elected members to act in a way that “generates community trust and confidence” in their council.
They must also “maintain a respectful relationship” with their colleagues and not bully or harass them.
As it stands, most code breaches result in a council asking the offender to issue an apology and undertake additional training.
Cr Arman Abrahimzadeh supported the council’s recommendation because it would make elected members more “accountable” and aware they “were not above the law”.
Cr Anne Moran, who was found guilty of an act of misconduct in January, described the three-strikes policy as “meaningless twaddle” and “particularly ridiculous”.
The council’s suggestion has divided other local mayors.
Campbelltown Mayor Jill Whittaker said the tougher punishment rule would be counter-productive.
“A faction could use it as a form of bullying in order to get rid of inconvenient councillors,” she said.
“This would be anti-democratic as it is likely to reduce diverse voices in local government.”
Prospect Mayor David O’Loughlin said the State Government’s proposed reforms of a three-month suspension was worth trialling.
“We certainly want more dramatic penalties than the current, completely ineffective ones,” he said.
Other significant reforms proposed by the government include the establishment of a behavioural standards panel.
“Generally however, I think it is important that we do all we can to foster better councillor behaviour across all of our councils, both metropolitan and regional,” said Local Government Minister Vickie Chapman.
LGA President Sam Telfer said he welcomed ideas about how better behaviour could be achieved.
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