Gawler Council member Ian Tooley claims he was defamed in minutes of turbulent council meeting
A councillor has tried to have the official record of a turbulent meeting changed, claiming he was defamed. LISTEN TO WHAT HAPPENED
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A strained relationship between the mayor of Gawler and a councillor has deteriorated further, with allegations the council’s official minutes are defamatory.
Councillor Ian Tooley has unsuccessfully attempted to have the minutes of the council’s August meeting struck out, arguing they are inaccurate.
The minutes recorded a heated clash between Cr Tooley and Mayor Karen Redman, which ended with the meeting being temporarily abandoned.
Ms Redman ordered a 30-minute suspension after Cr Tooley refused to stop making a personal statement about a dispute between the council and a Gawler hotel over a carparking levy.
The minutes said that Cr Tooley had “raised his voice making derogatory comments towards the Mayor and CEO” about a phone call made to a councillor before a council meeting in July which discussed the levy.
“More particularly that both dealt with the matter in (an) intimidating and threating (sic) manner towards the council member involved,” they said.
“The Mayor took these comments to be highly offensive, disparaging and threating (sic).”
The minutes said Ms Redman asked Cr Tooley to stop making “derogatory comments” but he would not stop speaking.
Cr Paul Koch called a point of order arguing Cr Tooley was being disrespectful to the council which was upheld by Ms Redman.
“It is noted that Cr Tooley continued to talk at this point in a loud and obstructionist manner,” said the minutes.
The issue resurfaced at the council’s latest monthly meeting, where Cr Tooley unsuccessfully sought to have the minutes rejected because they were “defamatory”.
“The language is highly inappropriate and incorrect,” he told the meeting.
“It is defamatory towards me.
“I defy anyone to tell me which words were threatening, disparaging and highly disrespectful.”
Cr Tooley asked councillors if they believed his behaviour had been inappropriate.
Cr Koch responding by saying he had a “clear recollection” that Cr Tooley had been “threatening and disparaging” towards Ms Redman at the August meeting.
“He kept talking loudly and loudly,” he said.
“The chief executive officer had to speak to him to ask him to stop shouting.
“It was an appalling performance by Councillor Tooley.”
Cr Cody Davies said Ms Redman had to be able to preside over council’s meeting without unnecessary interruptions.
“You just can’t keep talking over the mayor for several minutes,” he said.
“It just stops the meeting from functioning.”
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Cr David Hughes said the minutes were accurate.
“If we want to change behaviour or change minutes, I think we need to change behaviour,” he said.
Councillors voted 7-2 to keep the minutes as they were.
The incident is the latest in a series of clashes between Cr Tooley and Ms Redman over the council’s minutes and meeting procedures.
Cr Tooley complained about the accuracy of the minutes from a meeting in April and was asked by Ms Redman several times in May to apologise but he refused.
