West Torrens Mayor John Trainer to apologise after dobbing himself in to Ombudsman for code of conduct breach
A LONG-TIME Adelaide mayor will make a public apology after a State Ombudsman investigation found he failed to declare his conflict of interest over a trip to China.
LONG-TIME West Torrens Mayor John Trainer will make a public apology after a State Ombudsman investigation found he breached the code of conduct.
Mr Trainer turned himself into State Ombudsman Wayne Lines after having a “momentary lapse in concentration” and not leaving the chamber while councillors voted to decide whether to send himself, chief executive Terry Buss and partnerships manager Adriana Christopoulos on a council-funded trip to China.
Deputy mayor Arthur Mangos later went on the trip on Mr Trainer’s behalf.
Mr Trainer has admitted he failed to declare an interest in the matter but did not vote. He remained in the chamber while the matter was discussed and voted on.
The councillors approved the Shandong trip to form a “friendly city” relationship with the Chinese city of Weifang. It took place in May this year and cost the council $24,000.
Mr Lines – who praised Mr Trainer for his “initiative” in self-reporting the incident – said the former Labor MP stood to gain a “benefit” by receiving the trip.
“Mayor Trainer has acknowledged that he had a conflict of interest in that he stood to gain a direct personal and financial benefit from the outcome of the consideration of the matter,” Mr Lines said.
“Mayor Trainer also acknowledged that he did not declare a conflict of interest in the recommendation and that he failed to vacate the chamber during discussion and voting.
“To remedy this error, I recommend... that the council require Mayor Trainer to issue a public apology to the council within two ordinary meetings of the council.”
Under the State Government’s code of conduct for local councils, elected members must inform or leave the meeting if they stand to gain a benefit or loss from an item.
In his response to the report, Mr Trainer said he “inadvertently” failed to declare his conflict of interest.
Mr Trainer said he did not vote on the motion.
“Albeit my actions were inadvertent and unintentional, I understand that those actions are contrary to the requirements,” Mr Trainer said.
“As you will note from council minutes, as soon as this inadvertent lapse was raised with me, I immediately vacated the chair for the express purposes of the council reconsidering the motion.”
The council did not revote on the matter, of which Mr Trainer involved himself in the debate.
“I was distracted by the complexities of chairing the meeting while concentrating on answering questions about the merits of the Shandong delegation.”
Speaking to the Westside Weekly this week, Mr Trainer said he never intended to go on the trip because he had been overseas a week earlier.
“Listening to boring speeches twice one, once in English and once in Chinese and to be away from my wife for a whole week is not my idea of fun,” Mr Trainer said.
Weifang, 400km southeast of Beijing, has a population of about nine million people and is famous for its meat pies.