Group hug for council

By Callan Date
BATTLING Casey councillors have promised to be on their best behaviour after government officials stepped in to stop their feuds.
They’ve been put on probation after the State Government was called in following numerous complaints from the public.
The latest move comes after several badly behaved councillors disrupted council meetings this year.
Councillors agreed at a special council meeting last week to attend a special fortnightly meeting in response to recent inquiries made by Local Government Victoria officers.
The civic leaders have vowed to attend a 30 minute mediation session which will be facilitated by an independent professional, where they will discuss their own code of conduct and behaviour.
Casey mayor Janet Halsall said the motion was also about setting the record straight regarding the recent involvement of Local Government Victoria in Casey council matters.
“It never was an investigation,” Cr Halsall said. “An investigation is a formal process. Council wasn’t being investigated. This was a visit by officers and they were not empowered to investigate anything.”
“It was about them delivering a message from the Local Government Min-ister (Richard Wynne) to councillors,” she said.
Cr Halsall said she hoped that the group would now move on and start working together in a civilised manner.
“The half hour meeting on a Tuesday prior to a council meeting will be convened by me but facilitated by someone who we have appointed.
“The reason we have done this is to create a level playing field so there is not one councillor chairing the meeting.”
Cr Michael Farley said all councillors needed to get on with the job of representing the residents of Casey.
“I’m concerned that it is going to affect us all for re-election,” he said.
“I get extremely angry when councillors waste everybody’s time when they start grandstanding about their own little agendas.”
He said there was only five months to go before all councillors were up for re-election.
“We don’t want to hear what has happened in the past – you just have to move on and move forward,” Cr Farley said.
A spokesman for Mr Wynne said Casey council had made undertakings to improve the way they work together.
He said Local Government officers would continue to monitor the behaviour of Casey councillors to make sure they stayed in line.