Yesterday Logan City Councillors attended the City Governance meeting to cover a range of topics, however two major issues were deemed too personal to be public.

The first item involved Cr Tony Hall and the second Cr Lisa Bradley.

The first Councillor Conduct complaint was deemed by majority to be discussed in confidence and the meeting was closed for public viewing.

At 44 minutes the City Governance meeting was moved into a confidential meeting to discuss a councillor complaint.

In moving this motion, Cr Willcocks, who was chairing the meeting, asked councillors if they had any conflicts of interest in relation to Item 4.1 of the agenda, Covering Report – Councillor Conduct – Complaint 1.

Cr Tony Hall was the only councillor to have a conflict of interest in this matter and said, “I Cr Tony Hall declare a declarable conflict of interest in relation to item 4.1 of the City Governance Committee Meeting on the 21st April 2021.

“I propose voluntarily to exclude myself from this meeting while this matter is debated, and the vote is taken.

“I will have a stay for questions if councillors would like that.”

Cr Hall was excused from the meeting after questions were asked.

Cr Willcocks said, “note that item 4.1 is confidential and note that it is considered necessary to take the discussion of this report into a closed session as the information contained in the confidential report is of a personal nature which may directly impact the health and safety of the individual or individuals.”

A vote was put to the motion to make the meeting confidential, and all bar Cr Jon Raven voted to move this section of the City Governance into confidential.

Cr Raven said that he did not believe that it should be confidential.

The audio recording remained for the closed session however it is deemed as Council confidential use only.

At 2 hours and 3 minutes the meeting reopened to the public and livestream. Cr Willcocks produced a motion on the screen.

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Covering Report – Councillor Conduct – Complaint 1

  1. That on the balance of probabilities Councillor Hall has not engaged in inappropriate conduct alleged to contrary to section 150K(1)(a) of the Local Government Act 2009 in that the conduct regarding a communication with a constituent was inappropriate and threatening and involved a breach of behavioural standards of the Code of Conduct for Councillors in Queensland.
  2. That it be recorded that Council disagrees with the findings of the report and is of view that this complaint did not meet the criteria to be referred back to Council and should have been dismissed by the Office of Independence Assessor.
  3. That the confidential report of the Chief Executive Officer dated 21 April 2021 and associated attachments be deemed confidential and treated as such in accordance with sections 171 and 200 of the Local Government Act 2009 and that the documents remain confidential.

The second Councillor Conduct complaint in 4.2 of the agenda, Covering Report – Councillor Conduct – Complaint 2, when councillors were asked if any of them have a conflict of interest to declare, no person in the room did so.

Cr Teresa Lane said that she was waiting to see if anyone was going to declare a conflict and that no one declared a conflict for 4.2.

“I’m not sure of the process but I think that some people do need to declare conflicts as there were a number of people named in 4.2 and I would like for us to work out if they do indeed have conflicts.

“I believe that acting CEO Silvio Trinca has a potential conflict as he is mentioned in this report on numerous occasions along with Cr Bannan, Cr Raven, Cr Hall, and Mister Mayor are mentioned in the report.

“I believe another councillor is mentioned in the report but not in a negative fashion.

After 30 minutes of backwards and forwards it was deemed that Cr Bannan, Cr Raven, and Mayor Power did not have a conflict and motions were moved to allow all to remain in the meeting. With regards to Mr Trinca, he declared he did not have any conflict and as he cannot vote on the matter so he could remain.

Cr Lisa Bradley

While Cr Hall declared he does have a conflict of interest in item 4.2, the motion was passed that he can remain in the meeting and vote.

The action of making 4.2 is confidential and removing the public from the meeting was put to vote with Cr Raven, Cr Hall and Cr Bannan all against while the remaining councillors were for and were enough to pass the motion.

At 3 hours and 27 minutes the City Governance meeting was moved into a confidential meeting to discuss a second councillor complaint.

On hour five the meeting was out of confidential and open to the public again.

Covering Report – Councillor Conduct – Complaint 2

  1. That on the balance of probabilities Councillor Bradley has engaged in inappropriate conduct contrary to section 150K(1)(a) of the Local Government Act 2009 in that communications made with a constituent through social media interactions involved a breach of the behavioural standards of the Code of Conduct for Councillors in Queensland.
  2. That Councillor Bradley be reprimanded for engaging in inappropriate conduct contrary to section 150K(1)(a) of the Local Government Act 2009.
  3. That if Councillor Bradley engages in inappropriate conduct contrary to section 150K(1)(a) of the Local Government Act 2009 regarding communications with a constituent through social media interactions involving a breach of the behavioural standards of the Code of Conduct for Councillors in Queensland, it will be treated as misconduct and referred to the Office of the Independent Assessor.
  4. That the confidential report of the Chief Executive Officer dated 21 April 2021 and associated attachments be deemed confidential and treated as such in accordance with sections 171 and 200 of the Local Government Act 2009 and that the documents remain confidential.

This motion was put to vote with all councillors and passed with majority however Mayor Power, Cr Willcocks and Cr Stemp abstained from the vote and Cr Heremaia voted against.

When it came to keeping these documents confidential the motion passed however Cr Lane was unimpressed and was against the motion saying that this should be made public.

Cr Hall was deemed to have not engaged in inappropriate conduct and nothing more will come of this complaint.

Cr Lisa Bradley was deemed to have engaged in inappropriate conduct with more to come from this.

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