The Council meeting this week saw Mr Jim Bright present to Council during the now Unseen and Unheard Public Forum. Mr Bright presented on a serious topic that he hoped would advise the councilors that there was something very stinky in the way Council selects its reviewer for Codes of Conduct complaints "Let me state categorically – at all times between June 2016 and now, the ESC was legally obliged to have had its own panel of reviewers in place – but it did not do so. At no time was the ESC provided with some type of authorisation to depart from that legal obligation - and the OLG circular that is referred to in the Staff Report did not provide the General Manager with any such authorisation." Jim Bright It is accepted that while Council hasn't actually done anything illegal the way they select their preferred interviewer (the same person for three years) doesn't pass the pub test. Read the following and see if you think Council's preference for the same reviewer, the same company, out of over 100 alternates passes your "pub test". If it doesn't pas yours then why does it pass your councillors?
Above: Did the Mayor put Council's Foot in it by revealing there were over 100 reviewers to choose from over the past three years and Council only chose one refusing to chose anyone else as per their standard response (below) to anyone who asked for a different reviewer (name of company removed) ?
Council has now adopted the Canberra Region Joint Organisation (CRJO) Panel of Conduct Reviewers to operate from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022. One of these just happens to be Eurobodalla Council's PREFERRED reviewer and it will be interesting to see if the three new Codes of Conduct being raised by the community against the Mayor and a Councillor will go to the PREFERRED reviewer of old or will they select a fresh set of eyes from the newly appointed panel in fear of a Code of Conduct being raised against the whole of Council to be determined by the Minister.
