Gympie council reveals cost of investigations into complaints

Gympie ratepayers have forked out a five figure sum for investigations into conduct breaches by councillors, with details of those complaints finally revealed.

Ratepayers have forked out more than $41,000 for investigations into six inappropriate conduct complaints, with Mayor Glen Hartwig, Jess Milne, Dolly Jensen, and Bruce Devereaux all found to have breached the councillor code of conduct.

An abusive text message and a “misleading” Facebook post about office furniture expenses are among conduct breaches that have cost Gympie ratepayers tens of thousands of dollars to investigate.

Details of six complaints made against Gympie Regional councillors have finally been revealed more than a month after the matters were resolved.

Some of the complaints date back to 2020.

The investigations, carried out by a third party, cost ratepayers $41,165.54.

Acting council CEO Dave Lewis said Monday the use of a third party, and subsequent cost to the ratepayer, was necessary.

“Independence and impartiality are crucial, hence the need to outsource the investigation element of these complaints,” Mr Lewis said.

Councillor Dolly Jensen was found to have engaged in inappropriate conduct by making a “misleading” Facebook post, the councillor conduct register shows.

Councillors accepted the findings of four of the six investigations, the majority of which were resolved in December 2022.

Councillor Dolly Jensen was found to have breached the councillor code of conduct in a Facebook post which was “misleading and did not meet the behavioural standards”, the Councillor Conduct Register revealed.

Mrs Jensen had criticised a spend of $500,000 on “office furniture” as part of the 2022-23 budget at a time she said the council was “bleeding money”.

The comment drew significant support on social media and criticism from councillor Dan Stewart and then-acting CEO Scott Mason.

Mrs Jensen publicly apologised for the post at the January 2023 meeting.

Cooloola Coast councillor Jess Milne was found to have engaged in inappropriate conduct by sending an abusive text message to a member of the public.

“I regret that I said office furniture when I should have said office accommodation,” Mrs Jensen said.

“It was never my intention to mislead the public.”

Jess Milne was found to have breached the code by sending an abusive message to a member of the public, the register showed.

Ms Milne was ordered to write a letter of apology to the person.

Bruce Devereaux was found to have breached the code in a December 2020 Facebook post about the council’s financial situation.

A Facebook post by councillor Bruce Devereaux which shared a social media post by former councillor Ian Petersen was found to have breached the behavioural code of conduct.

The post shared the contents of a comment made by former councillor, and outspoken critic of the previous council, Ian Petersen.

No further action was taken against Mr Devereaux.

Of the two rejected complaints, one alleged councillor brought an employee of his private business to a meeting.

The other involved an allegedly “inappropriate comment” made during a media interview.

Neither councillor is identified.

The sixth complaint was resolved in October 2022 when Mayor Glen Hartwig was found to have engaged in inappropriate conduct after failing to “treat people in a reasonable, just, respectful and non-discriminatory way”.

The decision to accept the finding against Mr Hartwig was split 3-2 among the councillors who did not leave the room over conflicts of interest.

Originally published as Gympie council reveals cost of investigations into complaints