Elsie Lange
A councillor has opened up about the “traumatic” toll of Hume’s internal arbitration processes, which have cost the organisation nearly $143,000.
The previously confidential details and costs of councillor complaints against each other were revealed during a council meeting on Tuesday, June 14.
Cr Joseph Haweil said he felt “immense sadness and disappointment” that $142,898 of ratepayers’ money had been spent to investigate applications to the Principal Councillor Conduct Registrar from November 2020 until May 31, 2022, despite limited breach findings.
“After councillor [Jack] Medcraft, I think I am the second most complained about councillor … although not one of the four complaints ever made against me provided an adverse finding against me, only two even proceeded to arbitration,” Cr Haweil said.
“It’s fair to say going through that complaints process can be a very traumatic and upsetting period, it can be a period in which you feel like you’re in limbo.
“You don’t know what the outcome will be, you have to expend … a significant amount of time providing responses to arbiters … I certainly did that, at financial cost to myself.”
Cr Haweil said it had been an “upsetting and difficult period” for him, and other councillors had told him the same.
“You do lose sleep, at times, and I’m not embarrassed to say that, because you think … did I do something wrong, have I said something wrong, and what will the outcome of this process be,” Cr Haweil said.
The documents show the council has spent at least $48,583 on 21 internal arbitration matters brought by Cr Trevor Dance.
One has resulted in a finding of a breach of the councillor code of conduct, so far.
The most expensive arbitration case to council was brought by a group of councillors, who were represented by mayor Carly Moore, against Cr Dance, costing $16,987.
In this case Cr Dance had eight breaches found against him, was banned from two council meetings and forced to apologise.
The documents also reveal council spent $65,014 on costs for the councillor conduct panel, which found Cr Dance guilty of serious misconduct and suspended him for three months.
Cr Dance has appealed that verdict to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and has been reinstated while the process plays out.
Cr Haweil implored his colleagues to avoid recourse methods that costs ratepayers “huge amounts of money”.
“Nearly $145,000 of their hard-earned money has been spent on lawyers, and from what I can see … those figures we see quoted could very much increase, and increase exponentially, depending on what happens,” Cr Haweil said.
