By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
CASEY Councillor Rosalie Crestani is waiting to see if she will face further consequences after last year’s confrontation with council, having stood before the Municipal Association of Victoria’s (MAV) Councillor Conduct Panel on Friday.
The panel heard from Cr Crestani and witnesses for the City of Casey throughout the three-and-a-half hour hearing, with a verdict expected within weeks.
Cr Crestani was called before the panel, convened at the Narre Warren offices, following last year’s acrimony between her and council, instigated after Cr Crestani attempted to raise a motion to stop the City of Casey promoting awareness of different sexual orientations.
Cr Crestani’s motion sought to stop council from issuing media releases and remove signs concerning sexual orientation or the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.
None of her fellow councillors supported her motion and when Mayor Mick Morland later shut down her repeated attempts to raise her concerns on the issue, Cr Crestani labelled his action an “abuse of process”.
Cr Morland said Friday’s hearing was “amicable” and expected a verdict in the next few weeks.
“I put the council’s case forward and the panel heard the case and they will come back with a recommendation,” he said.
Cr Crestani, who decided against calling her witnesses to front the panel, said the hearing was a “surprisingly positive experience.”
‘The panel is made up of objective observers and they can look at a situation with no vested interest and understand it in the cold light of day,” she said.
“The panel didn’t just look at the way I conducted things, they looked at all of us concerned.”
Within 28 days of making their determination the MAV panel are required to provide their written reasoning to all parties involved.
If the conduct panel make a finding of misconduct it has the power to direct a councillor to take a leave of absence not exceeding two months, and to authorise a complaint application be made to VCAT.
Cr Crestani was last year removed from her role on a number of council committees following the incident.
