West Coast councillor Robyn Gerrity in hot water over ‘shove-it’ jibe

A WEST Coast councillor who allegedly told a council employee to “shove your f...ing iPad up your f...ing a...” has had a code of conduct complaint against her upheld.

A WEST Coast councillor who allegedly told a council employee to “shove your f...ing iPad up your f...ing a...” has had a code of conduct complaint against her upheld.

Ratepayers will be forced to foot the $4000 bill to cover the cost of the code of conduct panel’s investigation.

The complaint was lodged by West Coast Council general manager Dirk Dowling in early July.

Mr Dowling claimed Councillor — and former mayor — Robyn Gerrity breached the code when speaking to council employee Matthew Snow on April 13 this year.

Councillor Robyn Gerrity during the Community Forum at the West Coast Council offices at Queenstown

According to the complaint, Cr Gerrity was participating in IT training at the council chambers before the outburst.

Mr Snow told the code of conduct panel Cr Gerrity had been “irate” about the council’s move to a paperless system, but he had informed her she would still be able to print documents from an iPad she would be provided with.

Mr Snow said Cr Gerrity ­responded to the exchange by saying he could “shove your f...ing iPad up your f...ing a...”.

Cr Gerrity has maintained that she did not make the comments but admitted in oral evidence that she had been frustrated after not being able to access her email for a week.

Cr Gerrity asked Mr Dowling why he waited 80 days to make the complaint.

Mr Dowling said he had waited to provide an opportunity for the matter to be ­resolved informally.

The code of conduct panel upheld part of the complaint and found Cr Gerrity had behaved in a rude, inappropriate and abusive manner towards Mr Snow.

Cr Gerrity was contacted for comment.

West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers said it was not fair that the council had to cover the cost. He said he would write to Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein to express his concerns.

“I think if a person is found guilty of a code of conduct complaint there should be some provision where they have to suffer some of the cost,” Cr Vickers said.

“At the end of the day $4000 is a lot of money in anyone’s book, and certainly not budgeted for.

“If a similar thing happened again and I was mayor I would say, given the cost, I would probably do a lot more [to resolve the issue].”

All Tasmanian councils were required to approve a new statewide code of conduct model in July.

The West Coast Council discussed the determination of the complaint at their meeting on Tuesday.

Originally published as West Coast councillor Robyn Gerrity in hot water over ‘shove-it’ jibe