Charles Sturt Councillor Gerard Ferrao’s conduct breach during duck pond fight

A councillor’s conduct while campaigning to save a beloved urban oasis turned sour when he told a ratepayer and former colleague to take anger management classes.

A bitter fight to stop a council’s alleged plans to concrete over a beloved urban oasis turned sour when a councillor told a former councillor to take anger management classes.

Incumbent Charles Sturt councillor Gerard Ferrao was the subject of two conduct complaints and a subsequent investigation where he was found to have breached the code in comments about the West Lakes Freshwater Lake.

Mr Ferrao was then required by council to make a public apology, apologise directly to the complainants – one of which was his mayor, the other a former councillor – to attend training on “appropriate and respectful communication” and had a council honour stripped.

Incumbent mayor Angela Evans, in her evidence against Mr Ferrao, considered his advocacy against domestic violence and said his comment “targeted a woman, without provocation” and that his comments were an attempted “power play and form of verbal oppression”.

But Mr Ferrao told The Messenger he intended to fight the motion to accept the breaches.

Incumbent Charles Sturt councillor Gerard Ferrao. Picture: Supplied

Incumbent Charles Sturt Mayor Angela Evans. Picture: File

“My legal rights are not extinguished, I have the right to appeal, and I intend to do so,” he said.

The investigation, conducted by EMA legal, was brought about after comments Mr Ferrao made in a Facebook group to former councillor Juliann Andriani made in protest of the council’s move to review the use of the duck pond in the wake of a report signifying it would $900,000 to clean the sludge from it.

“You seem to have a lot of hate inside you … Have you thought of seeking a medical opinion and/or taking anger management classes,” Mr Ferrao commented.

Ms Andriani then took issue with Mr Ferrao celebrating the council’s later decision to shelve a possible plan to fill the ponds in with concrete, claiming he “hijacked” the success of the campaign to “self promote” himself.

Mr Ferrao directed a comment back to another commenter saying they had compared the council to a “group of terrorists”.

The under-fire incumbent councillor told the investigation he considered his comments to have been made in a “respectful manner”.

He also questioned the council’s protection for elected members who were targeted in online comments and posts.

Ms Andriani told The Messenger she was glad the investigation had been carried out.

“The investigation was very thorough and I am reasonably happy with the outcome, but I am not happy (Mr Ferrao) has not acted on council’s resolution,” she said.

A series of comments led to a code of conduct breach by incumbent councillor Gerard Ferrao. The comment shown is not from Ms Andriani. Picture: Charles Sturt Council/Facebook

The conduct breaches resulted after months of campaigning against the council unveiling a proposal to infill Freshwater Lake.

The proposal drew instant opposition from hundreds of ratepayers, local state MP Stephen Mullighan and the RSPCA SA.

The Facebook group within which the comments were made was set up by vocal opponent Robyn Haworth who told The Messenger people were “grieving” at the thought of losing the duck pond.

Frequent lake user Tim Sylvester told The Messenger removing the lake would mean they would have to change the name of the suburb from West Lakes to West Lake.

The battle to save the lake regularly turned heated with residents fearing the council had an ulterior motive to allow the area to be a future housing development.

Several ratepayers rallied at council meetings before council chief executive Paul Sutton said the area would not be developed.