Smith hits back at Public Inquiry report criticism of councillors

Former Mayor, Jane Smith, has hit back at criticisms levelled at the now sacked Central Coast councillors in the Public Inquiry report into Council’s financial woes.

Commissioner Roslyn McCulloch’s report said Council meetings were unreasonably long and characterised by lengthy and often irrelevant debate, interruptions and points of order.

“The behaviour of some councillors was very challenging for those chairing the meetings and often went unchecked,” it said.

“The absence of consensus and the constant bickering may well have distracted the governing body from its role in managing the Council finances and budgets.”

A number of submissions claimed councillors were ill-equipped and insufficiently trained to properly discharge those obligations, particularly in relation to financial management, the report said.

“The councillors were offered many and varied opportunities for further training but there was no written direction given by Council staff or the GM to councillors as to what forms of training might be most beneficial to them,” it said.

McCulloch’s report said Gary Murphy, who was Council CEO from July, 2018, to November, 2020, described the culture of the councillors as suspicious and sceptical, of staff and between themselves, even those of the same political affiliation.

“He referred to bitter exchanges between councillors, numerous points of order about councillor behaviour, a high number of notices of motion, frequent amendments to staff recommendations and an inordinate number of councillor requests and questions on notice,” the report said.

The report also said councillors felt unsupported by management in relation to councillor behaviour, primarily in the chamber.

It highlighted the increasing frequency of Code of Conduct complaints made by one councillor against another, which rose from none prior to June, 2018, to seven from 2018-19 and 13 from 2019-20.

“The governing body of CCC was not a Council which worked together, particularly later in its term,” the report said.

But Smith said the main problem was that many councillors came into the job with little prior knowledge of how Council meetings should be run.

“I believe there is a benefit in councillors coming from the community but many of the new councillors had probably never seen a Council meeting before,” she said.

“The problem was that the elections were held immediately after a period of administration so prospective candidates didn’t have the opportunity to sit in on a regular Council meeting.

“It will be the same this time around.

“I agree conduct of councillors was unbecoming and quite destructive in many ways.”

She said the Code of Meeting Practice needs stronger enforcement and even mooted the idea of an external body to review Council meetings.

Smith said it was disappointing but not surprising that the Minister had chosen to “remove democracy” from the Coast by sacking councillors and pushed for confirmation of an election later this year.

She said councillors were provided with insufficient information when making vital decisions.

“On any board of directors, the role is to make decisions based on the information given,” she said.

“Even the Commissioner noted that information councillors were presented with was not sufficient.”

Terry Collins