News / Council
Councillor facing four-week suspension for ‘misconduct’
Social media post was disrespectful and misleading, arbiter says
Mark Phillips
INDEPENDENT councillor James Conlan is set to be suspended for a month following a finding of misconduct over a social media post he made earlier this year.
The results of an internal arbitration process will be tabled at Wednesday’s Merri-bek Council meeting after a complaint against Conlan by fellow councillor Helen Davidson was lodged earlier this year.
It will make Conlan, who represents the Brunswick-based South Ward, just the fourth councillor in Victoria this year to be suspended from office for a month by a state government-appointed arbiter.
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The dispute stems from a Facebook post by Conlan following the council’s decision on March 13 to extend its support of Palestine.
The decision was carried unanimously 6-0, although Davidson was absent from the meeting at the time the votes were taken. Two other councillors were on approved leave of absence, while councillors Lambros Tapinos and Annalivia Carli Hannan arrived at the meeting after the votes on Palestine had been held.
The following morning, Conlan published a post on Facebook celebrating the decisions about Palestine. The final paragraph of the post named the three councillors who were not present for the votes, alleging that “shamefully” they had left the meeting to avoid voting.
On April 15, Davidson lodged her complaint that Conlan had breached two of the prescribed standards of conduct for councillors.
She said his post had contained disparaging comments that publicly questioned the integrity of herself, Tapinos and Carli Hannan, and were personal attacks by accusing them of leaving the meeting to avoid voting, which she said was untrue.
She also accused Conlan of “failing to uphold the principles of treating fellow councillors with dignity, fairness, objectivity, courtesy and respect”, “insinuating that those not in attendance at the council meeting should feel ashamed or be deemed disgraceful”, and deliberately misleading the public.
In written evidence, Conlan claimed the social media post “simply reported the factual outcomes of the council meeting”. He said allowing a social media post to result in disciplinary action would be a serious threat to free speech and local democracy.
A screenshot of the social media post which Helen Davidson claimed was disparaging of her and other councillors.
But the arbiter, Jo-anne Mazzeo, determined that the social media post fell below the standard of conduct expected by a councilor and the use of the word “shamefully” could only be interpreted as being disrespectful to other councillors, was misleading and had no factual basis.
Mazzeo said she had no power to direct Conlan to remove the offending social media post, but if he did not do so it could form the basis of future allegations of serious misconduct.
However, the decision to suspend Conlan for a month is largely symbolic as he has already announced he will not be seeking re-election in October and is currently on an approved leave of absence until the start of September. The council will be in caretaker mode by the time his susspension is lifted.
Davidson, who will be seeking re-election in the new Djirri-Djirri ward which covers Oak Park and Gowanbrae, said the arbiter’s decision had been fair.
“I needed to stand up and take the misconduct seriously,” she said.
“I nor anyone else who serves our community on council should be made to feel unsafe by our fellow councillors.”
Conlan, who is currently overseas, said that on legal advice he was unable to comment.
Findings of misconduct by a councillor are rare. This year, only four findings of misconduct have been made against other Victorian councillors resulting in three councillors being suspended for a month.
The internal arbitration process has been established under the Local Government Act to deal with low level allegations of misconduct.
An arbiter has a range of sanctions available for findings of misconduct, including the power to suspend a councillor for a month. The arbiter’s decision is not binding until it has been tabled by the council in question.
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