Dubbo mayor Ben Shields wants divided council sacked

Dubbo mayor Ben Shields says the divided council has become ‘unworkable’, while the Local Government Minister has broken her silence on the controversy.

Advice on whether or not the divided Dubbo council can be sacked is being prepared by the NSW Office of Local Government.

After weeks of silence, Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the council which on Thursday released an extraordinary meeting agenda with no items on it.

Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock says she’s concerned about Dubbo Regional Council. Picture: Sue Graham

Ms Hancock said she had asked for expert advice about potentially sacking the council after more than six weeks of infighting among councillors, allegations of misconduct and attempts to remove mayor Ben Shields from the top job.

“There are strict criteria under the Local Government Act that must be met before I can suspend a council and appoint an administrator, including that it is no longer functioning properly or effectively,” she said.

“I have requested advice from the Office of Local Government to determine if these statutory criteria have been met in the case of Dubbo Regional Council.

“The NSW Government will continue to watch the actions of councillors closely, including at the next extraordinary and ordinary meetings, and if necessary will take action to ensure the council is serving the best interests of the local community. The NSW Government has zero tolerance for councillors who put petty politics and personal interests ahead of serving their local communities.”

Dubbo mayor Ben Shields leaves council chambers after his first day back at work.

Despite six councillors calling for him to stand down, Dubbo mayor Ben Shields returned to the role on Tuesday after he attempted to take his own life and spent weeks in hospital recovering from his near-death experience.

Since returning to work, Cr Shields went public with details of his 20-year mental health battle and his desire for an administrator to take control of the council.

“I believe the current council has become unworkable,” he told The Dubbo News.

“All of the agenda items in recent times have pretty much been attempts to crucify the mayor or make his job harder when we should be looking after the Dubbo region’s best interest.

“The best thing we can do is put the council into administration until the election and let the people decide who they want to be their councillors and subsequently their mayor.”

Cr Shields said he would not step down until the election or while an unprecedented number of code of conduct complaints were investigated.

“That’s exactly what the other councillors are trying to do, they’re trying to roll me from office,” he said.

“I’ll be responding in time to the code of conduct complaints and I will be defending them as best as I can.

“I think some councillors need to understand they are not the jury, they are not the investigators themselves. When a complaint is made against a councillor it goes to an independent investigator and that investigator determines it.”

Dubbo Regional Council has become “unworkable”, mayor Ben Shields says. Picture: Ryan Young

Cr Shields claimed “the amount of accusations that have flown around” would cost council hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate.

“Most of them are frivolous,” he said.

“It’s incredibly sad because this council has been one of the better councils up until we got into election season.

“I think we all need to take a long hard look at ourselves as a council and the best thing we can do is to go into administration sooner rather than later because the council is clearly not functioning properly.”

Labor’s Local Government spokesman, Greg Warren, said the government and minister needed to listen carefully to concerns raised about the council.

“I understand the council is still functioning from a business perspective,” he said.

“If the government is approached to provide some leadership or direction then they certainly should be responding.

“It‘s the minister’s role to take the calls from any elected representatives or councils and make sure they’re listened to and considered.”

The Dubbo council meeting agenda with nothing on it. Picture: Dubbo Regional Council

His comments came as the council appeared to be no closer to finalising details of a mooted independent investigation into the organisation.

A call from deputy mayor Stephen Lawrence for an extraordinary meeting to be held on Saturday created more controversy and the date was changed to Monday, however an agenda released on Thursday contained no agenda items.

“The agenda released this afternoon does not have any business on it,” a council spokeswoman said.

“This is because under the legislation we cannot cancel an extraordinary meeting, even though in this case there are no items for the meeting.”