By Cara Waters
The state government has again been forced to step in and oversee the Geelong council as a new report highlighted financial problems, warring councillors and claims of harassment and bullying.
Peter Dorling and Mark Davies were appointed on Tuesday as municipal monitors effective immediately – less than three months since the previous monitors’ term finished.
Local Government Minister Melissa Horne.Credit: Gus McCubbing
Dorling and Prue Digby were initially appointed as monitors to the City of Greater Geelong beginning January last year, at a cost of $107,626 for a period of 12 months.
Their final report, which was made public on Tuesday, outlined budget problems, complaints between councillors, potential conflicts of interest and claims of harassment and bullying.
“We have observed an increasing, and unusually high, number of complaints between councillors,” the report states.
“We have also observed that the trust and working relationship between a number of councillors is poor.”
The report said the monitors, the chief executive and the mayor had spent a considerable amount of time advising, supporting and negotiating with councillors in an attempt to resolve matters.
“It is also our concern that once our appointments end, tensions and divisions in the councillor group will escalate especially with the upcoming elections and that this type of behaviour will only increase,” the report states.
The report flagged that information provided to the Local Government Inspectorate by the council regarding the preparation of financial reports “allegedly provided a more favourable budget position than was factual over the 2022 calendar year”.
It found there were “issues relating to organisational culture including harassment, bullying and business decisions” regarding the appointment of council officers and potential conflicts of interest in the appointment process.
The monitors will ensure stability at the council ahead of elections in October.Credit: Eddie Jim
The monitors questioned the council’s long-term financial position, with costs increasing at a higher rate than its ability to generate revenue.
The report noted that “unrealistic and unrealised savings” embedded in last year’s budget – and not known to the council or audit and risk committee – meant the council was facing a deficit of $8 million.
“Structural change to the business is required to improve the financial outlook,” the report said.
Over the past eight years, Geelong council has been the subject of a commission of inquiry, placed under administration for a year and a half, and had two sets of municipal monitors installed over a period of almost three years.
Municipal monitors have again been appointed to guide the City of Greater Geelong.Credit: Justin McManus
The new monitors will be in place until the end of this year and have a mandate to work closely with council chief executive Ali Wastie to ensure governance improvements are fully implemented and to have stability at the council during the election of a new mayor.
Council elections will be held across the state in October.
Minister for Local Government Melissa Horne thanked Dorling and Digby for their work as monitors.
“Their report shows that work still needs to be done to improve governance practices at the council, and the appointment of Mr Dorling and Mr Davies as municipal monitors will support that work,” she said.
The Geelong ratepayers association president Peter Mitchell is concerned about the reappointment of monitors to the council. Credit: Chris Hopkins
Ratepayers Geelong president Peter Mitchell said the conflict between councillors highlighted in the report was concerning. However, he said he wanted more clarity on why Geelong had been singled out for attention.
“It feels like the state government have been picking on Geelong and the reasons given just don’t stack up, they don’t pass the pub test,” Mitchell said.
“People complain about the council, but they do in every local government area that I’m aware of. There’s nothing I’ve seen that indicates Geelong is any better or worse than any other.”
Geelong Mayor Trent Sullivan said many of the monitors’ recommendations had already been implemented, including new policies on the employment and remuneration of a new CEO, conflicts of interest, sponsorships, and councillors’ gifts, benefits and hospitality.
“The city has also worked hard to improve [the] council’s financial position,” he said. “Our community will see that councillors have listened and taken on board feedback from last year’s budget process, whilst improving our overall financial sustainability.”
Sullivan said the Geelong council would return a net operating surplus with its budget this year.
“We continue to provide much-needed services for our community and we are delivering an impressive capital works program,” he said.
The Allan government is reforming the Local Government Act and will introduce new legislation before the October council elections that will require mandatory training for elected representatives, a uniform councillor code of conduct and strengthened powers for the minister to address councillor conduct.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.