No action against ex-councillor over inappropriate conduct

A former Logan City Councillor has been found guilty of inappropriate conduct. But no disciplinary action will be taken.

A FORMER Logan City Councillor has been found guilty of inappropriate conduct in his dealings with a council bureaucrat over access to a council email account.

Ex-councillor Jon Raven was found guilty of inappropriate conduct on two occasions in 2018, when he was the councillor for Logan’s Division 5 electorate, which covers the suburb of Marsden.

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But the city’s administrator Tamara O’Shea ruled out any disciplinary action against Mr Raven, who is no longer a councillor.

He was dismissed along with the rest of the council in May last year when the council was unable to operate and form a quorum after eight councillors were charged with corruption in April.

Mr Raven, who is contesting the seat he held, said he would apologise to the staff member but believed announcing the breach today was “politically motivated”.

“This needs to be kept in perspective, these were conversations from back in 2018 and the council has had nearly two years to investigate — so why is it coming out now during an election campaign,” he said.

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Logan administrator Tamara O’Shea said ex-councillor Jon Raven was guilty of inappropriate conduct but no disciplinary action would be taken.

Administrator Ms O’Shea said the breaches were in relation to Mr Raven’s tone and the content of conversations he had with, and about, council staff.

She said no disciplinary action was necessary as Mr Raven offered to apologise and was no longer employed by the council.

She added that because the council was in administration, had no councillors and they were Mr Raven’s first breaches she decided against action.

She made her decision after an internal investigation was launched into the events which happened in October and December 2018.

They were initially sent to the Local Government Department for investigation but were then sent on to the Office of independent Assessor, which handballed it back to the council.

Ms O’Shea said it was the first Code of Conduct breach the council had investigated since the Local Government Act 2009 was updated after the Belcarra report.

Under the updated Act, there are four categories for councillor conduct complaints ranging from unsuitable meeting conduct all the way through to misconduct and the highest transgression, corruption.

This decision will be noted in Logan City Council’s next annual report and will be recorded in the Councillor Conduct Register.