Outspoken councillor Brooke Patterson defends her behaviour after more official complaints

Southport councillor Brooke Patterson has admitted being “rude” to council bureaucrats – but has strongly defended her conduct. Read what she had to say.

Southport councillor Brooke Patterson has admitted she has been “rude” to senior City bureaucrats but has strongly defended her conduct, which sparked several official complaints.

Ms Patterson says she was standing up for residents and believed the disputes could have been solved without cost to the ratepayer by avoiding marathon investigations by the Office of Independent Assessor.

The Bulletin in July exclusively revealed 11 complaints had been made against Ms Patterson, forcing council bosses to step in and lay down guardrails for her contacts with staff. That led her to claim she was being “muzzled” by the council administration.

Speaking publicly about the matter for the first time on a Facebook video post, Ms Patterson was backed by many residents encouraging her to “keep fighting the good fight”. Some advised council employees to “get a backbone”.

Southport councillor Brooke Patterson at a community meeting about the Cotlew-Wardoo streets roadworks at Ashmore.

Regarding one complaint about the City introducing the controversial ‘view tax’, Ms Patterson backed her earlier comments at a Town Hall meeting where she said “the buck stops” with CEO Tim Baker.

“There been a lot of talk about culture in our organisation, and I know the CEO has received a lot of flak for it, in the media, over the last few months,” she said.

Ms Patterson said it did not serve in a healthy culture “to have a weaponising approach of a system to a separate body” which led to 12 months of huge legal costs to ratepayers.

“We’re bigger than this, we’re more grown up than this. I concede that I didn’t do things in a number of matters and I was rude to people when I was passionate, and concerned and disappointed on your behalf,” she said.

“But there are ways for us to deal with that – I don’t think the OIA is the way to deal with that.”

Ms Patterson encouraged the new Crisafulli Government to undertake reviews of the current system which it had promised in opposition.

The complaints included negotiating with officers about the homeless in Southport, standing up for Surfers Paradise Bridge Club residents at Bruce Small Park about parking fines and risk management issues on the airport sale made at a confidential council meeting.

She said a restructure of the council administration had added to frustration in dealing with the James Overall Park homeless issue, where an anti-social vagrant was threatening residents.

Gold Coast City Council CEO Tim Baker and Southport councillor Brooke Patterson. The Governance chair asked the city's top officer about an investigation.

“After six months of raising this issue, I was deeply frustrated and disappointed on your behalf that we hadn’t made any progress with what we should have,” Ms Patterson said.

“I shared that with an officer in a way which I’m happy to admit was rude.”

On the Bridge Club parking fines, which she added should not have occurred, Ms Patterson admitted she spoke in a way that was not polite and considerate to officers.

“I let them know what I thought,” she said.

Ms Patterson believes she did not do anything wrong by raising risk management concerns about the airport sale given she believed there was insufficient information, and the City later changed and upgraded its procedures.

“I appreciate in that some of these cases I was rude, I spoke in a way that was abrupt and that wasn’t fair to the officers,” she said.

“However, I have significant issues with the process of this when that kind of issue happens. “So we are talking about the most senior bureaucrats in this organisation, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each of ratepayers’ funds.”

Ms Patterson said a more appropriate process was for officers to speak to herself or the CEO and let her know that “we didn’t like her style” rather than making an official complaint.

“This I would assert is weaponising of the OIA rather than doing anything that is going to enhance culture or to support good relationships between officers and councillors,” she said.

It is understood some of the complaints are likely to be dealt with by councillors later this month.

In a statement to the Bulletin, a City spokesperson defended referring the complaints to the OIA.

“The CEO had no choice but to refer the complaints about Councillor Patterson’s conduct to the Office of the Independent Assessor,” the spokesperson said.

“The CEO is legally required to refer all councillor conduct complaints to the Office of the Independent Assessor for assessment.

“The Local Government Act 2009 also requires the CEO to refer any information that they become aware that indicates a councillor may have engaged in conduct that may amount to a conduct breach or misconduct.

“Complaints about suspected councillor conduct breaches or misconduct can only be assessed by the Office of the Independent Assessor.”

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Originally published as Outspoken councillor Brooke Patterson defends her behaviour after more official complaints