By Ruza Zivkusic
BRIMBANK City Council will not show proof of misbehaviour as requested by four of Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association (SunRAA) members who may be banned from attending council meetings.
In a recent letter sent to Darlene Reilly’s lawyer, Brimbank CEO Marilyn Duncan said there were “no relevant minutes of council meetings” concerning the behaviour of SunRAA president Ms Reilly and members John Hedditch, Brian Carroll and Garry Collins.
“Council does not seek and will not be assisted by any response which purports to address your client’s behaviour at the recent council meetings,” Ms Duncan stated in the letter.
Instead, she said that “councillors were present at these meetings” who observed the misbehaving.
The four have been granted an extension until this Friday to show cause as to why they should not be declared prohibited persons.
Mr Hedditch has described Ms Duncan’s statement as “kangaroo court”.
“There are six Suleyman (mayor Natalie Suleyman) allied councillors on the council and if they choose to see someone as an enemy or a threat they can say that they’ve observed them misbehaving and have them ejected. That’s not democracy,” Mr Hedditch told Star last week.
All four attended last week’s council meeting but said very little during the time because they felt as they were being “targeted”, Mr Hedditch said.
“We just wanted to demonstrate to the council that we were not the problem. The purpose of going quiet was to let them see that we might do it (go quiet) one day but there’ll be another group of (vocal) people the next day,” he added.
Councillor Ken Capar was keeping a count of questions asked by the public in the gallery during the council meeting last week, claiming that residents from other suburbs in Brimbank did not attend council meetings because of Sunshine residents asking questions.
He counted 17 questions that were asked; saying 16 of them came from Sunshine residents.
Councillor Miles Dymott, who moved a motion last week to revoke the letters sent to SunRAA members, said the more residents attending council meetings to ask questions, the better.
His motion was seconded by Councillor Costas Socratous but voted against by all other councillors.
“It seems very strange that a majority of councillors support action associated with banning residents,” Cr Dymott said.
“It’s not just about those four individuals. It’s about people’s rights to come to council meetings and to ask questions, it’s fundamental and we should not be removing that from people,” he said.
