Hume City Council: arbitration costs involving Trevor Dance soar to more than $70,000

Warring councillors in Melbourne’s north are racking up huge bills in external arbitration over petty disputes — and you wear the costs.

Hume City councillor Trevor Dance has been accused of running a vendetta against his colleagues. Picture: AAP

A Melbourne councillor has cost ratepayers more than $57,000 on what colleagues describe as a bizarre “personal vendetta” against them.

Leader can reveal Hume City Council Cr Trevor Dance has made eight complaints against fellow councillors since he was elected in November 2020, none of which have been upheld by an independent arbiter, with each complaint costing on average more than $8000.

Cr Dance’s most recent complaint, his fourth against Cr Jack Medcraft, has led to the latter lodging an official bullying and harassment complaint with Mayor Carly Moore and chief executive Sheena Frost.

“It impacts your mental health getting belted by these complaints after a while,” Cr Medcraft said this week.

“He’s using ratepayers’ money to run a personal vendetta against me.”

Cr Medcraft said he had been the subject of 11 complaints lodged by Cr Dance, with only a handful reaching arbitration stage.

Hume City councillor Trevor Dance has made eight complaints against fellow councillors since he was elected in November 2020. Picture: Nathan Dyer

“We have to be accountable for ratepayers’ money,” he said.

Cr Dance, however, said he was the subject of a “concerted effort” of other councillors to be “pinned down”.

Cr Dance himself has been found to have committed eight breaches as a councillor, at a cost of more than $16,000, which excludes staff hours and which also needs to be borne by ratepayers, according to council documents.

It brings the total cost of arbitration involving Cr Dance to more than $73,000 since his election to council.

“These arbiters do bugger all and don’t investigate properly,” he told Leader this week.

Cr Dance’s most recent complaint accused Cr Medcraft of failing to declare a conflict of interest when voting on an item that concerned the Sinclair Landfill site in April last year.

Part of Cr Dance’s justification was that resident Bobby Koroneos, who had an interest in the site, was the cousin of Cr Medcraft’s ex-wife, whom the latter said has been divorced from for more than two decades.

Cr Dance has also made two unsuccessful complaints against former mayor Joseph Haweil, and one against Cr Moore.

The mayor and chief executive were contacted for comment.