Councillor lashes out after vote loss

By Rebecca Fraser
PLANS to hold a Casey Council meeting in Endeavour Hills have been stopped in their tracks with one councillor turning on his colleagues when he failed to attract their support.
Four Oaks Ward councillor Paul Richardson was a lone voice last Tuesday when he moved that council officers conduct a report into the feasibility of holding at least one council meeting a year in Endeavour Hills.
Cr Richardson told last week’s council meeting that Endeavour Hills ratepayers had a right to attend meetings in their own suburb.
However when the matter failed to attract support Cr Richardson made a swipe at his council colleagues and said some councillors were less caring then what they pretended to be to the community.
This comment deeply angered Cr Janet Halsall, who called a point of order, and labelled Cr Richardson’s comments defamatory, irrelevant and improper.
Mayor Kevin Bradford asked Cr Richardson to withdraw the comment but he refused.
He was also heard saying “shut up” in the direction of Cr Halsall when she spoke out against his comment.
Council meetings are held every fortnight in the council chambers in Narre Warren, and Cranbourne hosts two meetings a year.
Cr Richardson moved that the report detail the cost efficiency, a selected venue and expenditure costs of hosting a meeting in Endeavour Hills and that the report be presented to council in June.
However many councillors, including Edrington Ward councillor Mick Morland, said hosting a meeting in another Casey suburb would set a dangerous precedent for the other 27 suburbs within the municipality who might also wish to host a meeting.
He said it could also turn into a costly exercise.
Cr Bradford said it cost the council $1500 each time they moved a meeting to the Cranbourne Integrated Care Centre.
Cranbourne meetings are now held in the old shire offices on Sladen Street and the cost to council was much less because the building has inbuilt audio facilities.
The motion was subsequently lost.