City of Greater Geraldton council votes in favour of introducing committee to deal with internal complaints

A move to introduce an internal complaints committee divided Greater Geraldton council last week, but councillors ultimately passed it seven votes to four. The committee will contain five councillors who will be under the guidance of the chief executive officer, who will deal with behaviour complaints made under the code of conduct for council members, committee members and candidates. The newly introduced committee has the ability to make decisions about whether the subject of the complaints has occurred or not, and will be able to decide if the person being complained about can be dismissed. The five councillors on the committee will be Jerry Clune, Natasha Colliver, Jennifer Critch, Robert Hall and Simon Keemink. Cr Keemink said he felt any council member complaints should be dealt with through the committee. “The behaviour complaints committee has been established to ensure procedural fairness, consistency, confidentiality, and accessibility is maintained whilst dealing with any behaviour complaints.” At the meeting, Mayor Shane Van Styn said: “Delegating power to this committee is fraught with danger. I don’t think the committee should be the judge, jury and executioners.”