December 7, 2014
by Dafyd Martindale
In February, South Burnett councillor Damien Tessmann was forced to pay a $1000 fine and issue a public apology to his fellow councillors.
Cr Tessmann was rapped over the knuckles for statements he’d made at a Council meeting in mid-2012 about the feelings of the Adermann family towards the State Government’s proposed sale of a portion of Adermann Park to the adjoining St John’s Lutheran School.
Cr Tessmann was fined and ordered to make an apology by the Local Government Regional Conduct Review Panel, a body which investigates complaints levelled by the public.
The Panel had received a complaint from Windera resident Ralph Percy about Cr Tessmann’s statements, and had found “on the balance of probabilities” that Cr Tessmann misled his fellow councillors.
Cr Tessmann, however, strenuously denied he misled any of his colleagues.
This was because the Adermann family’s views had been sent to him in an email, and he had forwarded that email on to all other Councillors before the meeting began – something that was shown in the Council’s own internal email logs.
He said the statements he made at the Council meeting had simply been a broad summary designed to protect the Adermann family’s privacy.
Cr Tessmann also said he expected he would get an opportunity to present this evidence to the Panel in his own defence – evidence that would have rendered the complaint groundless.
But this did not happen. Instead, the Conduct Review Panel handed down its finding without hearing Cr Tessmann’s defence.
And as Cr Tessmann later discovered, there is no avenue to appeal its findings.
Cr Tessmann strenuously denied misleading his fellow councillors when the Panel’s finding was handed down.
And he repeated this again – with added force – before he made his official apology, noting that murderers, rapists and paedophiles have access to a fairer judicial system than Queensland councillors currently do.
But two residents felt Cr Tessmann’s apology was inadequate, and they fired off more official complaints.
This time, though, they scored a spectacular own goal.
Last week the Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal not only dismissed the new complaints, but also admitted that Cr Tessmann may well have been misled into believing he would be able to present evidence at a teleconference with the panel.
While noting they were not reviewing the original decision of the Panel (we don’t believe they can) they directed changes be made to the Department Of Local Government’s internal procedures in a belated effort to ensure a similar situation doesn’t occur again.
But why does any of this matter?
Well, here are a few reasons:
1. The cost of every complaint that is investigated by the Department Of Local Government’s panels and tribunals is paid for by the Council involved, which means it’s ultimately paid for by ordinary ratepayers. And at an average $9000 per investigation, this quickly adds up.
2. Nearly all complaints levelled against local councillors in the last few years have been laid by people who complain loudly in public about Council waste, but have wasted large amounts of ratepayer money firing off complaints that have either been dismissed outright or turned out to be so trivial they merited nothing more than the mildest of penalties.
3. If the State Government allows penalties to be imposed with no right of appeal, injustices will flourish and respect for the law will diminish.
At the LNP’s Annual Convention in July, delegates unanimously backed a call by South Burnett councillors Damien Tessmann and Kathy Duff to improve the way complaints against councillors are handled.
And at the Local Government Association of Queensland’s annual conference in October, delegates endorsed a similar motion to reform the existing complaints process.
Neither group is calling for abandoning or watering down a process that allows ordinary people to complain about genuine misconduct by their elected representatives.
This is an important safety mechanism that should always exist in any democracy, and should apply to all levels of government.
They are simply calling for a more open, fair and transparent system that genuinely protects the interests of all parties.
These are responsible calls, we think, that should be listened to and acted on by the Local Government Minister.
If people can fire off multiple anonymous complaints without penalty – even if the complaint is frivolous – then this flawed system will continue to pillage the pockets of ratepayers and discourage good people from entering local government, which does no one any good at all.
