Complaint, Rattler on Gympie council agenda for October

The return of a mysterious complaint regarding an unidentified Gympie councillor is among almost two dozen items the council will grapple with on Wednesday.

Gympie councillors Mayor Glen Hartwig, Deputy Mayor Hilary Smerdon, Shane Dolly Jensen, Shane Waldock, and Bruce Devereaux. will once more grapple with a complaint against an unidentified councillor which led to them leaving the room in June after declaring conflicts of interest.

The return of a mysterious complaint regarding an unidentified councillor is among almost two dozen items Gympie’s elected representatives will grapple with at Wednesday’s general meeting.

The complaint, to be discussed behind closed doors, is one of a list of 20 agenda items ranging from funding for the Mary Valley Rattler to financial reports and an update on the council’s efforts to fill dozens of vacancies.

Councillors were originally presented with the complaint on June 28, 2022.

The council was unable to deal with it, however, when more than half of the nine councillors – Mayor Glen Hartwig, Deputy Mayor Hilary Smerdon, Shane Waldock, Dolly Jensen and Bruce Devereaux – declared conflicts of interest and left the room.

The remaining councillors were unable to even vote to close the doors to the public let alone make a decision on the report and its contents.

The four instead asked the state government for advice on how to proceed.

All five councillors later rejected claims they had left the meeting as a protest.

Councillor Bruce Devereaux was one of five councillors to declare conflicts of interest regarding a complaint against an unidentified councillor a June 2022 Gympie council meeting. The item is back on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.

The complaint will be joined by a proposal to inject another $400,000 in funding to the Mary Valley Rattler to be considered during the closed doors session.

It was originally scheduled to be discussed in the open portion but has since been shifted into the confidential section.

The funding is part of a wider deal reportedly on the cards between the Rattler and the council which would include forgiving $900,000 in debt.

These will be joined by reports on the council’s purchase of new equipment, its financial position, and notified motions by councillor Bruce Devereaux.

Another $400,000 in funding for the Mary Valley Rattler will be discussed at the Wednesday Gympie Regional Council, but it will now be debated behind closed doors after initially being scheduled for the open part of the meeting.

The first of these is aimed at improving communication by making the location of all portfolio meetings available to councillors, keeping these meetings to a “more regular time frame”, allowing councillors the option of attending these meetings, or – if they choose not to – sharing the information discussed at those meetings to all councillors.

Mr Devereaux’s second motion is calling for councillors to be given pre-prepared governance advice before meetings as part of each item on meeting agendas.

The meeting will be held at 9am Wednesday at Gympie’s Town Hall.