Many readers are now aware that Eurobodalla’s Councillor Lindsay Brown resigned from the Local Government NSW (LGNSW) Board having been found in breach of their code of conduct. Supplementary local Codes of Conduct (COC) Complaints have been raised by Eurobodalla residents who have raised the question of whether the Councillor, by his resignation from the Board, has bought the name of Eurobodalla Council into disrepute. Certainly the issue has been widely spoken of in the media with Councillor Brown suggesting the leak of the finding of his breach was a political move. The finding is now also well known across NSW State and Local Government quarters with the name of Eurobodalla Council directly connected to the identity of Councillor Brown and his actions whatever they might have been. Irrespective of the details and findings of his breach and his conduct, the matter at hand is whether he has bought the good name of Eurobodalla Council into disrepute. Eurobodalla Council’s Mayor has offered the following defensive response when formally asked what Eurobodalla Council’s position is in regards to the matter and whether Councillor Brown, in his role as Vice President representing Rural and Regional Council’s on the Board, was in fact also representing Eurobodalla Council. The Mayor offers “Council did not nominate Councillor Brown to run as a Board member of LGNSW. Councillor Brown nominated himself and was elected to the Board with votes from rural and regional delegates. Any person who wishes to nominate for the Board must be a councillor to be considered,” she adds.
“In his role as Vice President (Rural and Regional Councils) on the LGNSW, Councillor Brown represented councils across New South Wales, including Eurobodalla Shire Council.
“Councillor Brown was not on the Board to represent Eurobodalla Shire Council solely.
“Councillor Brown was carrying out his function as a Board member of LGNSW therefore, the most appropriate governing body to deal with any breach of Code of Conduct is LGNSW.
“Councillor Brown was not carrying out his function as a Councillor of Eurobodalla Shire
Council when acting in his role on the Board of LGNSW.” The sustained Codes of Conduct complaints against Councillor Brown offer that Councillor Brown may have bought Eurobodalla Council into disrepute. His capacity as a Eurobodalla councillor was required in order to qualify as a candidate to be a member of the Board, therefore it could be put that he was in fact representing his own Council Rural along with other Rural and Regional Councils.
The question could be asked... "Is it not so that Councillors are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with Councillors’ Code of Conduct at all times? "
These Codes of Conduct complaints are now with an independent investigator and the determinations of the findings will be published when available.
