Onkaparinga Council mayor backs down on plan to review councillors

An Adelaide mayor has dumped a plan to hold secret reviews of councillors when their behaviour was questioned after a resident backlash.

Erin Thompson, the mayor of Onkaparinga Council. Picture Dean Martin

Residents have reacted angrily to what they claim was a bid by Onkaparinga Mayor Erin Thompson to control elected councillors.

Ms Thompson had moved to be given the power to hold secret performance-management style hearings when the conduct of councillors was called into question.

But today she backed away from the idea after a storm of protest from residents who say she tried to replace the power of voters.

Onkaparinga Council Watch spokeswoman Yvonne Wenham contacted The Advertiser and alerted councillors to the problem, which was to be debated at tonight’s meeting.

“This is what the voters do at every election, not the Mayor, the judge the performance of a councillor when they vote,’’ she said.

“Can you imagine Prime Minister Scott Morrison reviewing a Labor MP?

“A rule change like this would be a step towards creating a dictatorship.

“The other thing this would have done is to try and stop code of conduct complaints against councillors being made, so an attempt to make the council look good.”

A small number of councillors at Onkaparinga have felt unfairly treated by the dominant group and Ms Wenham said the power to judge in the hands of the Mayor would make that problem worse.

The Onkaparinga Council offices. Picture: Ashleigh Pisani

Following complaints Ms Thompson told Onkaparinga Council Watch she would not be going ahead with the idea at tonight’s meeting.

“I wish to advise you that I have informed elected members that I intend to withdraw item 11.1 Notice of Motion tonight,’’ she said in an email.

“This motion directly responded to requests and suggestions from members of the elected body to find ways of better managing minor behaviour issues that may not warrant a code of conduct.

“It appears that members that were calling for improved processes are now comfortable awaiting any new processes that may come for the local government reform bill (before parliament), or maintaining status quo.”

In the council minutes, Ms Thompson’s motion stated the intention of the system was to find an alternative to code of conduct complaints.

Such complaints – a system that is due to be changed by state parliament – has been criticised statewide as time-wasting and dominated by trivial personal disputes.

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