Mayor, GM no longer on conduct committee

The mayor and general manager will no longer be on a council's Code of Conduct Committee, under changes to the Code of Conduct announced by Local Government Minister Mr Paul Lynch.

Mr Lynch said "those changes were made to avoid conflicts of interest arising".

Earlier this year, Gosford Council defended the inclusion of the mayor and general manager on its Conduct Committee.

Woy Woy Bay resident Mrs Margaret Lund had claimed that the committee had suffered a conflict of interest, because of the inclusion of the mayor and general manager, when it investigated a conflict of interest complaint she had made.

In January, acting general manager Mr Nic Pasternatsky told Peninsula News: "The investigation was conducted in accordance with the prescribed legislation and I can assure you that all committee members were impartial during the investigation."

Under the revised Model Code of Conduct for local councils, the Conduct Committee would now be called the Conduct Review Committee.

Councils could now have conduct review committees or individual reviewers undertake enquires into alleged breaches, Mr Lynch said.

Members of these committees or the sole reviewers would be independent of council and can act in the role for more than one council.

Councils would also have the option to informally resolve complaints

Mr Lynch said the revised Model Code of Conduct provided guidance on political donations.

"The code will require councillors to take all reasonable steps to ascertain the source of any political donations that directly benefit their election campaign," Mr Lynch said.

"They must then declare a conflict of interest in relation to donations over $1000 and manage that conflict in accordance with the conflict of interest provisions in the code."

Mr Lynch advised candidates at the September local government elections to keep details of all donations.

The release of the revised code means each council will have to update its own Code of Conduct in line with the new model.

Further material and guidance will be provided to councils to support the implementation of the new model code.

This will include seminars, to be held later this year.

Mr Lynch said the Model Code of Conduct assisted councillors, council staff and delegates to act honestly, ethically and with accountability.

"Since January 2005, it has prescribed a minimum set of standards of conduct the community expects of its council officials," Mr Lynch said.

Over the past 18 months, a review of the code has been undertaken in consultation with the local government sector.

Mr Lynch said the review identified the need for a number of changes that are now part of the revised Model Code of Conduct.

Press release, 23 Jun 2008 Paul Lynch, Minister for Local Government