Qld councillor investigated after lending town hall keys to church

A regional politician was investigated for misconduct after she lent a set of town hall keys to a church group who’d forgotten to check out the keys themselves before council offices closed for the weekend.

A Queensland councillor was forced to defend herself against a now dismissed misconduct charge for lending the keys to a local town hall to a church group.

The under-pressure council watchdog investigated serious allegations against South Burnett councillor Kathy Duff for not following guidelines in place when she helped a constituent and a local pastor access the keys to conduct a Sunday church service at the Murgon Town Hall. But in a turn of events, the Office of the Independent Assessor (OIA) has admitted the case should have never gone that far.

The OIA told The Courier-Mail on Monday it lacked resources and that stringent laws had held up its ability to dismiss the case earlier.

Ms Duff was informed in January that the OIA was investigating her after a constituent called her in a flap because his church group had mixed up plans to sign out the keys before the council office closed on Friday, ahead of the service, and a helpline was no help.

South Burnett councillor Kathy Duff.

Ms Duff said she then called a council office worker and asked if she could open the ­office herself so the constituent could sign out the keys.

She said she was told that would be fine, and the keys were signed out and returned straight after the service, although the OIA alleged the alarm was not set and the hall was twice left unsecured. It was alleged Ms Duff failed to follow acceptable guidelines for making a request of a council officer.

A parliamentary inquiry into the functions of the OIA, sparked by The Courier-Mail’s coverage of similarly trivial matters, will wrap up public hearings Tuesday.

An OIA spokeswoman said the laws stipulated a breach of a council officer’s acceptable request guidelines was misconduct, but said: “The OIA has asked the Inquiry for law reform, specifically that breaches of acceptable requests guidelines should not be misconduct.”

The spokeswoman said due to resourcing problems, the OIA only had an investigator free to look at the allegations in late January. It was dismissed as an “unjustifiable use of resources”, but the councillor had not yet been informed.

Ms Duff said it was the ­second time she’d had to defend a complaint – the first last year centring around how she arranged for the planting of flowers in a park ahead of Remembrance Day – and that it had cost $3000 in legal fees ­before it was dismissed.