City denies politics in play

The City of Greater Geraldton has rejected accusations of political influence on the council after the disqualification of Willcock ward councillor and Labor candidate Renee Ellis.

Following a backlash from some members of council at a briefing on Tuesday, the City has referred the matter to the State Administrative Tribunal and will be assisting Cr Ellis with an appeal.

A joint submission from the City and Cr Ellis will be handed to the SAT today, and until a decision is reached, Cr Ellis is free to resume her role on the council.

The matter arose at a meeting on September 27 after councillors unanimously voted they were losing confidence in Cr Ellis because of her poor attendance.

The motion was authored by Cr Michael Reymond on the morning of Tuesday, September 27, after a meeting with Mayor Shane Van Styn at which Cr Ellis’ attendance was discussed. Cr Reymond said the motion was his own idea and denied any influence from Mr Van Styn.

Councillors were notified of the motion on the way to the meeting, which was held in Mullewa.

The losing confidence motion then prompted an official review of Cr Ellis’ attendance by the chief executive’s office.

Cr Ellis, who was dealing with personal issues at the time, had applied for compassionate leave for the April meeting of council.

It has since been revealed a discrepancy between the City’s guidelines and the Local Government Act led to her leave being recorded but not officially approved by the council.

It was then retroactively declared Cr Ellis had missed three consecutive meetings.

Under requirements of the Local Government Act, City chief executive Ken Diehm served Cr Ellis with a disqualification notice on Monday.

Mr Diehm has since accepted responsibility for failing to update the City’s guidelines and said he had taken measures to address the issue.

But he said there was also an equal obligation on councillors to be familiar with the Act, particularly with respect to their conduct and attendance at meetings.

Days before the no-confidence motion, Cr Ellis was announced as a Labor candidate for the agricultural region, prompting accusations from party members of political bias on the council. Nationals candidate Paul Brown posted a copy of the losing confidence motion to social media after the meeting.

Shadow minister for local government David Templeman questioned Mr Brown’s motives and the City’s ability to act independently.

“Its very clear in this case that Cr Ellis did apply for leave in the appropriate way and she was let down by the council’s own guidelines not being up to date and the CEO himself not ensuring proper process is carried out,” he said.

“I sense there are some politics in this.”

Mr Diehm strongly rejected the accusations and said he would “never compromise my integrity or impartiality as a CEO to satisfy political agendas”.

Cr Ellis acknowledged she had missed several meetings but said council members had not been given the full information before voting on the losing confidence motion.

“I spoke to a few of the councillors about what happened and they did their own research and were appalled at the process and almost unanimously supported an appeal to SAT on my behalf,” she said.

Mr Van Styn said he had played no role in the matter and the chief executive was legally bound to issue the disqualification notice.