City of Greater Geraldton councillor Aaron Horsman drops defamation threats against city for minutes debacle

New councillor Aaron Horsman has revealed his decision to drop the legal pursuit of the City of Greater Geraldton after the council claimed he made a defamatory statement to former mayor Shane Van Styn. Cr Horsman’s rivalry with Mr Van Styn elicited many heated debates, one of which resulted in him calling Mr Van Styn a “pathetic leader” over the lectern during question time. That remark, made before Cr Horsman was elected to council, was written into the June 2023 meeting’s minutes as “an offensive or defamatory comment”. Cr Horsman believed calling his remark a defamatory comment was defamatory in itself and threatened to sue the City of Greater Geraldton for $1000 for each day the word defamatory was left in the document. Last week, the councillor said the issue needed to be tackled so ratepayers didn’t have to foot the bill, which would now be nearing $240,000. “We need to do this in the spirit of cohesion and being unified, moving forward for ratepayers,” he said. Cr Horsman added the wording had been changed, but not the way he wanted it to be — the word “defamation” was still present and he wanted it gone. “As soon as I was elected to council I was considering dropping it, I was looking around the room and thinking these are my peers and we need to work together for the best interest of the city,” he said. A discussion with city CEO Ross McKim gave Cr Horsman valuable feedback as to how the scenario would likely pan out. “I had discussions on where to go to reach an agreement and it seemed that wasn’t going to happen so I thought I’d be the bigger man and let it go,” Cr Horsman said. Cr Horsman said previously it was never about the money. During his campaign for mayor, Cr Horsman listed reducing the mayoral salary from $98,000 to $40,000 as one of his goals should he be victorious. Though he did not successfully secure the top job, he has officially been sworn in as a councillor and will receive a $38,000 allowance. He scraped on to council, winning the last position available by a margin of nine votes. Cr Horsman said the rapport and cohesion between councillors and staff had been commendable since the changes in leadership after the October 2023 election.