Gold Coast councillors: Most complaints of any south eastern council in Queensland

Gold Coast City councillors are continuing to attract far more complaints than other southeastern councils about their behaviour.

GOLD Coast City councillors are continuing to attract far more complaints than other southeastern councils about their behaviour.

Data to be released today shows the Gold Coast, as of June 30, had sparked 177 complaints with the Office of the independent Assessor (OIA).

The council received 86 complaints in December last year, 57 to January 31 and 34 in the last quarter.

Independent Assessor Kathleen Florian has previously admitted the Coast had a “misleading spike” with half the December complaints due to Black Swan Lake and about environment issues rather than conduct.

GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL INTERNAL INQUIRY BACKLASH

Black Swan Lake sparked a lot of complaints. Picture Glenn Hampson

But the new figures still show the Coast, with 177 complaints, way ahead of Moreton Bay Regional Council (80), Logan City (46), Redland City (24), Ipswich City (17), Sunshine Coast (15) and Noosa (5).

Brisbane City Council is not currently in the OIA’s jurisdiction but new laws before the Queensland parliament will see it being handled by the new body.

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For all other councils across the state, a record 917 complaints were made about councillor conduct in the past financial year with the OIA receiving 824 complaints in just over six months, 240 in the last quarter.

The number of complaints represents a 466 per cent increase in the financial year. About 1200 separate issues or allegations were raised.

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Council meeting on the Gold Coast. Picture Mike Batterham

Ms Florian told the Bulletin: “Complaints from the public increased to 62 per cent of all complaints received and we are now dealing with councillor conduct complaints in relation to 51 out of 77 Queensland councils.

“As at 30 June 2019 we have 152 ongoing misconduct investigations and a total of 54 matters have been referred or, have been assigned to the OIA lawyers to prepare matters for possible referral, to the Councillor Conduct Tribunal.

“Notwithstanding this, the OIA has been able to assess 80 per cent of the complaints that we have received within 21 working days.

“It is important for councillors and complainants to also know that the OIA has dismissed or determined to take no further action on a total of 477 complaint matters, either on assessment or after investigation.”

FRESH WAVE OF COMPLAINTS AGAINST COUNCILLORS

Gold Coast Deputy Mayor and Councillor Donna Gates strongly denied she had attempted to trivialise allegations against council and an investigation by the OIA. Picture: Jerad Williams

In June, Mayor Tom Tate was cleared of three complaints to the OIA related to Black Swan Lake.

He was accused of inappropriate conduct after two residents had comments removed and were blocked from his Facebook page.

In May when another report was considered at a council meeting, Deputy Mayor Donna Gates strongly denied that she had attempted to trivialise allegations against council and an investigation by the OIA.

Councillors at the full council meeting debated a recommendation in an officer’s report that no action be taken against Cr Gates after she was accused of inappropriate conduct. They unanimously supported it.

Ms Florian said the OIA was prioritising matters for active investigation and delays in investigations and referring matters to the tribunal were being experienced.

“As at 30 June, 79 investigations (involving various councils) were on hold or pending outcomes in other jurisdictions,” she said.

“We are sending smaller matters on the fast track to the tribunal but there are now several contested matters before the tribunal,” Ms Florian said.

The OIA began taking councillor complaints from December 3, 2018. Before that complaints were managed by the Department of Local Government, Racing and Multicultural Affairs.