‘Awful’: Victorian council suspended, administrator appointed

A Victorian council has been suspended after an investigation found some elected members did not understand their roles and were “unwilling” to do their jobs properly.

Issues highlighted in a report into Strathbogie Shire’s woes included evidence that some councillors were “regularly not reading their meeting papers”. One also advised that they “would not be attending briefings for a month because they were too busy”.

Local government minister Melissa Horne.Credit: Joe Armao

The probe also found some councillors had demonstrated they could not move beyond previous conflicts and were “sometimes unwilling to perform the role of councillor”.

Local Government Minister Melissa Horne said all Strathbogie Shire councillors would be relieved of their duties from Wednesday, until the next local council elections in October 2024.

Peter Stephenson, who conducted the three-month investigation, will become the interim administrator of the council.

“I consider the problems I have observed as resting predominantly with the Councillors,” he said in his final report.

“The Council does not have the ability to address the issues raised in this report and to function effectively without further ministerial intervention.”

The council, which also covers Nagambie and Euroa in north-central Victoria, has been plagued by resignations, with several councillors quitting during this term.

“I have been advised from a number of sources that staff morale is low and individuals are considering their future employment options,” the report said.

Mayor Laura Binks said the challenges facing the council had become “awful”.

“We were experiencing multiple code of conduct breaches and regular unacceptable
behaviour towards each other, the CEO, and the council officers,” Binks said in a statement.

“A lack of trust between councillors, a lack of trust between councillors and officers. Nobody wanted to come to work on Tuesdays when we were all in the chamber.”

Stephenson concluded that the council had failed to conform with several aspects of the Local Government Act and other regulations.

He was appointed as municipal monitor in May to examine the council’s response to the advice of a previous monitor – Janet Dore – in 2022.

Dore had laid out a 10-point plan to get the council back on track – but Stephenson found many of the problems identified continued and there appeared to be resistance to change despite “ample opportunity”.

“The former municipal monitor had identified that the transition from being a community member with specific interests to members of a governing body was challenging for some,” he said.

“My assessment is that some councillors still do not understand their role – or choose to be selective on which elements of the role they will focus their attention.”

Stephenson said some demonstrated a lack of understanding of the commitment required.

He highlighted one councillor suggesting that because under the law a councillor only ceased to hold office if they missed meetings for four consecutive months without approval, it meant they could just take four months “off”.

“My response was that it was a perverse way of looking at the Act and that if a councillor was considering four months off because they could, they perhaps should reconsider their position,” he wrote.

“Similarly, a councillor at one point advised that they would not be attending briefings for a month because they were too busy.”

Stephenson also found that councillors were consistently ignoring key documents ahead of meetings.

“An examination of access logs...shows that several councillors consistently do not open briefing papers, council meeting agendas, and particularly confidential attachments to these agendas,” he wrote.

“A failure to read these documents to inform their decision making means that critical oversight of officer reports, including – for example – tender documents, is not occurring. ”

The report also referred to an instance in which the CEO’s salary and performance review were discussed openly in a livestreamed council meeting in late May.

“Discussing the CEO performance review in a public Council meeting is a failure of governance as the meeting should have been closed to the public under ... the Act.”

Horne decided to suspend the council after considering the responses received from the council and individual councillors.

“Strathbogie residents deserve a council that serves their needs, and it is clear from the work of two municipal monitors that a circuit-breaker is needed,” Horne said in a statement.

The Allan government will also look to introduce new reforms to the Local Government Act 2020 to attract “quality” candidates before next year’s council elections.

Reforms will introduce mandatory training for elected representatives, a uniform councillor code of conduct and strengthened powers for the minister to address councillor conduct, across the state’s 79 councils.

The latest state government figures show almost 30 councillors have resigned since January while one council, Moira Shire, has been sacked and replaced by administrators.

Municipal monitors have been appointed to intervene eight times in 18 months at the Glenelg, Strathbogie, Horsham, Darebin, Wodonga, Geelong and Yarra councils.

With Benjamin Preiss and Rachael Dexter

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