Dan Stewart wants investigations into Gympie councillors made public

A Queensland councillor is pushing for a series of investigations into complaints against his colleagues kept confidential to be released to the public.

Gympie Councillor Dan Stewart is pushing for the council to release investigation reports into six complaints made against councillors which have been resolved in the past four months.

Gympie Regional Council’s transparency is back in the spotlight with a push for investigations into a series of complaints against councillors to be released to the public.

Councillor Dan Stewart is asking the council to publish the third party reports relating to six complaints, all resolved by the council in the past four months.

“(The) council is required to be open and accountable,” Mr Stewart said in the motion.

He said publishing the reports, redacted “where necessary” would be “in line” with requests from the state’s Local Government department and its councillor watchdog, the Office of the Independent Assessor.

The complaints were all debated and resolved behind closed doors.

Details about them, including the identities of the councillors at the centre of each complaint, were not revealed until early February when the outcomes were published on the councillor conduct register.

Four of the six complaints against Gympie councillors have been upheld, while the remainder were rejected despite a third party investigation finding “sufficient evidence” of inappropriate conduct.

Two of the complaints were rejected despite a third party investigation finding “sufficient evidence” the councillors engaged in inappropriate conduct.

The grounds on which these findings were made remain unknown.

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Mr Stewart was himself found by the state’s Councillor Conduct Tribunal to have breached the rules by revealing on Facebook the existence of a confidentiality deal between the council and outgoing CEO Shane Gray.

In contrast to the matters referred to in his motion, details of the complaint were made public before the meeting and the matter was discussed in public.

The Mary Valley Rattler is again being discussed by the Gympie Regional Council behind closed doors. The council and the Rattler Railway Company have previously been negotiating a possible deal which would wipe the remainder of a $1.1m loan and transfer control away from the council.

The CCT’s findings were published online in advance of the meeting.

The council has yet to adopt the CCT’s findings with a decision deferred until clarification could be had as to whether councillors could vote to reject the claims if they wished.

Acting CEO David Lewis said Monday said the six complaints were dealt with in closed sessions “on third party advice”.

This has since changed.

“Council has now implemented a strategy to ensure these items are dealt with in an ordinary meeting of council,” Mr Lewis said.

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Mr Stewart’s motion is one of more than two dozen items listed on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.

The renewal of several community group leases, including one between the Gympie Recreation Association and the council for the use of Albert Park, are on the agenda for Wednesday’s council meeting.

These an identified compensation claim and the future of the council’s ties to the Mary Valley Rattler, each to be discussed behind closed doors.

The council and the Rattler Railway Company have been working on a deal which would include wiping the remainder of a $1.1m loan and transferring control from the council.

The council’s staff have also recommended a discount offered to community groups on building application fees be expanded to include infrastructure charges too.

Under the new proposal, groups could apply for discounts of up to $20,000 on the fees with requests of more than $10,000 to be decided by councillors.

The renewal of several community group leases for sites including Albert Park, and parts of the saleyards which have been used by the Rotary and Woodworkers clubs.

Originally published as Dan Stewart wants investigations into Gympie councillors made public