By Vanessa Chircop
TRANSPARENCY was the theme of last week’s council meeting with councillors making the move to disclose Council matters previously heard in-camera.
Councillors unanimously voted to reveal any in-camera sessions that detail the full history of the ongoing conflict between Councillor Peter Hemphill and Mayor Tony Briffa, including Councillor Conduct Panel (CCP) findings, since their appointment to the council.
As previously reported by Star, Cr Briffa is expected to appear at VCAT in May to face Cr Hemphill’s allegations of serious misconduct relating to an apology Cr Briffa made to former Mobil employee Maureen Short.
Cr Briffa estimated the matter, which was first brought before a CCP last year, may cost ratepayers as much as $250,000 after he exercised his right to defer the matter to VCAT.
Last week councillors also moved to seek an earlier VCAT hearing, appoint an individual costs consultant to monitor legal expenses and to seek a report on council’s ability to make the applicant to VCAT pay their own legal costs.
Both councillors have now obtained legal representation for the VCAT hearing.
At the CCP hearing however, only Cr Briffa had legal representation costing about $25,000.
At this stage, Cr Hemphill has not incurred any legal costs but has estimated his legal costs at VCAT will be around $25,000.
The council have estimated that if the matter proceeds to the fullest extent it could cost between $150,000 and $200,000.
Cr Luba Grigorovitch said she hoped the motion to have all matters made public would make the council more transparent to the community.
“All the points are about giving more clarification and light to the community, which I hope this actually does,” she said.
Cr Angela Altair said it was commendable to table these matters.
“I think the community has a right to know and let’s face it there have been some pretty wild headlines that we’ve all read,” she said.
“The fact that the public can now read this report, they can get a much clearer idea of what has been spent so far and who has done so – I do believe we only have half the picture or half the story.”
After much debate and confusion the motion was finally passed.
The in-camera matters are expected to be tabled at the next council meeting.
