Glen Hartwig, Bruce Devereaux clash at Gympie council meeting
Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux has defiantly told his colleagues he was happy to get booted from a council meeting after clashing with Mayor Glen Hartwig.
Gympie
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Internal tensions within Gympie council have boiled over at the latest meeting, with one councillor saying he would be “happy” to be kicked out after receiving two warnings.
Bruce Devereaux was chastised twice by Mayor Glen Hartwig over comments he called “harsh” and “disrespectful” to staff.
The first clash was sparked after another councillor, Dan Stewart, raised concerns about staff answering emails after hours and managing “work-life-balance”.
“I don’t think staff have any problem with ignoring an email,” Mr Devereaux replied.
In response to Mr Hartwig’s claims the comment was “a bit harsh”, Mr Devereaux doubled down on his view.
“I’m only speaking from my experience,” Mr Devereaux said, prompting Mr Hartwig to reiterate it was “a little bit disrespectful” to level that accusation at staff.
“With respect, I don’t find it respectful that I send an email and it’s not responded to,” Mr Devereaux said.
“Up until recently that has been very much what I get.”
Tensions boiled over again about 30 minutes later when Mr Devereaux raised his own notified motion asking that a 2014 motion delegating the ability to install an acting CEO solely to the mayor be revoked.
Mr Devereaux argued this arrangement was “less rigorous and democratic” with “the potential for unintended consequences”.
Under state council legislation the appointment of an acting CEO falls to the council as a body.
Filling the council’s top job has been a thorn in the council’s side during this term.
It was filled on an acting basis by Chief Financial Officer David Lewis for more than a year after the abrupt departure of Shane Gray in January 2022.
The vacancy was finally filled by Robert Jennings in December 2022, but he did not start the job until March 2023.
Mr Hartwig questioned Mr Devereaux’s claims the council had been “acting under this delegation”, saying the two previous acting CEO appointments were made by all nine councillors.
He presented Mr Devereaux with the minutes from those meetings, leaving the councillor with more questions.
“I don’t understand why this didn’t come to me earlier. I did announce that I was going to do this fairly early on,” Mr Devereaux said.
These minutes were not referenced by staff in their own comments attached to Mr Devereaux’s motion.
The council’s standing orders require notified motions be submitted to the CEO “not less than seven clear business days” before the meeting it was to be discussed at.
Mr Devereaux then sparked further uproar when he rejected Mr Hartwig’s claims the minutes were not given over because he was present at the meetings in question as “a bit of a cop-out”.
Mr Hartwig then warned him again about “making sure your comments are appropriate standard for our chambers”.
“If you want to kick me out I’m more than happy,” Mr Devereaux replied.
Mr Hartwig refuted this as “harsh and unfair” given he had access to the same copies of those minutes as the other councillors.
Mr Devereaux’s motion was left to lay on the table until a future meeting, a decision supported by all except Jess Milne and Bob Fredman.
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