New Greater Geraldton councillor Aaron Horsman wants to reach an agreement with City for defamation accusation

Newly elected Greater Geraldton councillor Aaron Horsman wants to reach an amicable agreement in his quest to sue the council for more than $1000 a day. Cr Horsman told the Geraldton Guardian he would be meeting with newly minted Mayor Jerry Clune and City CEO Ross McKim in a bid to “put it to bed”. Cr Horsman says he is the embodiment of the age-old saying “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. The No Mandatory Vaccination Party candidate has attended every council meeting this year to participate in public question time and last Tuesday was sworn in as a councillor after a successful run in the local election. Attending question times to direct his queries to former mayor Shane Van Styn, Cr Horsman said he had a “vested interest” in increasing council transparency. His rivalry with Mr Van Styn elicited many a fiery conversation, one of which resulted in Cr Horsman calling Mr Van Styn a “pathetic leader” over the lectern during question time. That remark was scribed into the meeting’s minutes as “an offensive or defamatory comment”. Cr Horsman believed calling his remark a defamatory comment was defamatory in itself and sued the City of Greater Geraldton for $1000 for each day the word defamatory was left in the document. “Minutes can be changed. We haven’t had a chance to mediate at all so this is the first thing we need to do, which is put it to bed,” Cr Horsman said. He said the issue needed to be tackled in the interest of ratepayers, so they didn’t have to foot the bill, which would now be nearing $120,000. “We need to do this in the spirit of cohesion and being unified, moving forward for ratepayers” he said. He added he would be meeting with Mr Clune and Mr McKim in the coming weeks to negotiate a path forward. Cr Horsman said 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. Cr Horsman will be taking that allowance in full. “I can’t live on nothing,” said the single father, who cares for his son full time. He acknowledges his reputation may have been tarnished by his involvement with the anti vaccination movement. “I want to take this job seriously. I want to be taken seriously, and I would like people to see that. I am trying and I will do the right thing,” he said. Cr Horsman said the heated conversations between him and Mr Van Styn were the product of personal frustrations with the way Mr Van Styn had treated him. “I don’t have any intentions of carrying that kind of delivery into my role as councillor,” he said. Questions regarding whether he is the admin of Facebook page “City of Greater Geraldton Stuff Ups” have been asked, but he is quick to shut them down. “That’s not my page. I know who runs it, and I’m not at liberty to say. But it’s definitely not mine,” he said.