IT is a rare thing to witness a completely harmonious council, and with so many competing priorities for projects and services, the public expects a certain amount of passionate debate between councillors.
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But when a councillor starts making scores of unfounded complaints against his peers, like earlier this year when a complainant made 24 allegations costing $26,000 to investigate, it becomes another matter.
Orange City Council’s code of conduct is there to guide councillor and staff behaviour, ensuring the council functions efficiently and ethically.
To keep complaints confidential is understandable if it relates to corruption or an issue similar in scale to protect a whistle blower.
By the same token, it is unfair to disclose the identity of someone subjected to a complaint should inquiries reveal no misconduct.
But with this incident involving several complaints against a range of Orange councillors and staff, this process has appeared to move away from shining light on genuine wrongdoing.
Instead, it has become a contentious issue of accountability in the way council resources are spent because if there had been misconduct, one of the complaints would have yielded a result.
The funds spent investigating these complaints could have gone towards services.
It is this waste of public money councillors say resonates with ratepayers the most, and they say their constituents want to know who is behind it.
Not only do councillors now have to contend with questions around spending, the refusal of the complainant to come forward has cast unnecessary aspersions over the entire group and caused unease due to questions around what the allegations were and who they involved.
One elected representative said he would rather sort out a misunderstanding face-to-face and put it bluntly: if you can’t take the heat, you shouldn’t be there.
Councillor Glenn Taylor says he will not let the issue rest, but regardless of whether the culprit is exposed, hopefully the backlash will make people think twice about being cavalier with council money in future.