Four formal complaints have been lodged against either Shellharbour City councillors or the general manager since September last year - two of which had to be referred to an outside body.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In response to code of conduct legislation, all councils have to report any complaints raised.
In the period from September 30, 2021 to August 31 this year four complaints related to the council's code of conduct.
The reports are confidential and there are no identification as to which councillors may be the subject of a complaint.
A report before Shellharbour City Council noted that only one of the matters had been finalised.
Two of the matters had to be referred to an outside body "such as the ICAC, the NSW Ombudsman, Office of Liquor and Gambling or the police".
To date the cost to council of dealing with these complaints has been $5341.
Cr Rob Petreski said he was unhappy that amount of money had been spent.
"It is quite disappointing that we have to put that kind of money towards things like councillor's behaviour that councillors have the ultimate ability to prevent," Cr Petreski said.
"The fact that we've had to do this I think is disappointing. I would like to just say that in the previous time of council there were none and we dealt with things quite differently and I think that that there may be things to observe and maybe lessons to be learnt."
He also alleged there had been "some deal of disrespect" during the current term of council.
Mayor Chris Homer warned Cr Petreski that he was talking on a confidential issue and suggested his remark about the previous council not having any code of conduct complaints was creating an "imputation" about the current council.
Ultimately, council passed the motion unanimously, which was merely to receive the report on the code of conduct complaints.
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
