The Mayor has responded to a Code of Conduct complaint lodged against the General Manager for failing to comply with the Code of Meeting Practice of recording of PROCEEDINGS in the minutes of a Council meeting with the following: "regarding the minutes and webcasting of the Ordinary Council meeting of 26 March 2019. "The following explanations will assist with your enquiry. The minutes of the of the Ordinary Council meeting of 26 March 2019 are correct for the following reasons. Councillor Pollock stated ‘If Mr Bernard doesn’t apologise and withdraw I move he be expelled’. Councillor Pollock is indicating a procedural motion. A procedural motion is a motion that refers to the conduct of the meeting. The procedural motion was seconded by Councillor Thomson. Mr Bernard apologised for his comments which I accepted. Once the apology was accepted the procedural motion was not required to be put. As the procedural motion was not put, the procedural motion does not exist and therefore was not included in the minutes. With regards to the amendment to the webcast of the Ordinary Council meeting of 26 March 2019, Council has received legal advice that it should remove any potential defamatory comments. The legal advice states that webcast should be amended from the first objectionable comment to the end of the presentation as the whole debate contributes to the potential defamation. Council has kept the original webcast of the Council meeting to comply with the State Records Act 1998 (NSW)."
While the above is of interest it is most unusual that the Mayor would provide such comment whilst a formal Code of Conduct stands seeking an informed independent reviewer to determine if there has been a breech of Council's Code of meeting Practice. A copy of that legal advice referred to above is now being sought under a GIPA request.
