Watchdog finds two from Redland council engaged in misconduct

The state’s council watchdog has handed down findings of misconduct in two separate Redland City Council cases.

Queensland’s council watchdog has handed down findings of misconduct in two separate Redland City Council cases.

The Councillor Conduct Tribunal found Cr Lance Hewlett had engaged in misconduct in four instances and, in a separate ruling, found former councillor Paul Gleeson had engaged in three counts of misconduct and fined him $5514.

Cr Hewlett was ordered to make an admission at a council meeting that he engaged in misconduct.

The Councillor Conduct Tribunal found Cr Lance Hewlett, right, had engaged in misconduct in four instances.

He must also attend training or counselling at his own expense to address his misconduct.

The findings of misconduct for Cr Hewlett related to conduct during the 2016-2020 council term and were about not keeping his register of interests up to date and not declaring certain interests at council meetings.

In its report, the tribunal said allegations relating to Cr Hewlett were linked to his operation of a not-for-profit charity organisation called Redlands Community Breakfast, which it said was of significant benefit and interest to the local community.

The tribunal found Cr Hewlett had failed to declare a conflict of interest at a Redland City Council meeting voting on a housing estate development application in December 2019.

The tribunal report said Cr Hewlett failed to inform the meeting that developers of the Shoreline housing estate had deposited $1000 in charity donations into bank accounts held by Cr Hewlett’s wife, Sheena.

The tribunal found that Cr Hewlett had failed to properly disclose the bank accounts and inform the council’s chief executive.

But it found he had not engaged in any impropriety, nor did he attempt to conceal the accounts.

“Indeed, he was motivated by philanthropic and noble goals, and on the evidence was acting for the betterment of the local government area,” the report said.

“However, the payments were made by (among others) property developers and persons with interests in council decisions, which is exactly the kind of matter that Registers of Interests were intended to capture.”

Cr Hewlett said all donations to the Redlands Community Breakfast charity were dispersed via Bendigo Bank to good causes including Redland Hospital, Redland SES, Donald Simpson Centre and The Cage Youth Foundation.

“I can cop having to make an announcement in a council meeting for not declaring my wife as a signatory on my register of interest but to declare a conflict of interest in a council meeting because Shoreline had come to one of our breakfasts is a step too far,” Cr Hewlett said.

“I can’t remember who paid for a table at one of these breakfasts and made donations.

“I made donations of up to $2000 in the form of hampers to be raffle prizes and the breakfasts raised thousands of dollars and all was given to community causes.

“These allegations have been hanging over my head for five years.”

In its reasoning, the tribunal found that Cr Hewlett had no prior misconduct history and had no other aggravating factors relevant to penalty.

Queensland’s council watchdog has handed down findings of misconduct in two separate Redland City Council cases. The Councillor Conduct Tribunal found former councillor Paul Gleeson had engaged in three counts of misconduct and fined him $5514.

In May, the tribunal also handed down a report on former councillor Mr Gleeson, noting his “lengthy misconduct history is a significant aggravating factor”.

Two of Mr Gleeson’s misconduct findings related to his social media behaviour in 2019 while using his personal Facebook page.

The third matter was related to his failure to make an admission of misconduct as required by a previous tribunal order.

The tribunal found in each case that Mr Gleeson did not comply with the responsibility of a councillor to provide “high quality leadership to the local government and the community”.

The third finding of misconduct was that the former councillor did not meet a tribunal deadline of March 2020 to make a public admission that he had engaged in misconduct.

“Had the councillor still been serving on the council, the tribunal would have considered whether it would be appropriate to recommend to the Minister that the councillor be suspended for a period of time under section 150AR (1)(b)(xi) of the Act,” the finding stated.

“The respondent’s poor conduct and lengthy history of proceedings before this tribunal and its predecessors warrants a sanction at the higher end of the spectrum, consisting of both reprimands as well as pecuniary penalties to protect the integrity of the local government system that the respondent was once part of.”

A parliamentary committee started investigating Queensland’s councillor complaints process and the Office of the Independent Assessor in October after a request from Local Government Minister and Deputy Premier Steven Miles.

Many submissions to the inquiry have raised concerns about the length of time taken to deal with complaints about the conduct of local councillors.

Originally published as Watchdog finds two from Redland council engaged in misconduct