News / Council

Long-serving councillor facing suspension for a month

Mark Phillips

A VETERAN Merri-bek councillor is set to be suspended for a month for misconduct related to his social media activity.

Oscar Yildiz, a former mayor and the longest serving of the current crop of councillors, will be officially suspended at a council meeting on Wednesday night following an internal arbitration process initiated by a complaint by fellow councillor Jay Iwasaki.

Yildiz was found to have engaged in misconduct in a Facebook post and subsequent comments in December last year which disparaged Iwasaki, councillor Natalie Abboud and Greens councillors.

It is the second time Yildiz has faced internal arbitration in the past 12 months. A previous investigation in August last year made no finding of misconduct but said Yildiz had fallen below the standards expected of councillors in a text message exchange with a Brunswick resident.

Yildiz is said by those close to him to be be disappointed by the suspension but declined to comment to Brunswick Voice for legal reasons.

The move to suspend Yildiz is the result of a complaint by Iwasaki about comments Yildiz made on Facebook after the December 11 meeting – the first of the new council after elections last October which saw Yildiz re-elected to an fifth term as a councillor with 62.3% of first preference votes in his Pascoe Vale South ward.

The arbiter appointed to investigate Iwasaki’s complaint, Noel Harvey, said Yildiz had failed to treat councillors with dignity, fairness, objectivity and respect.

“I am satisfied that the posts can only be interpreted as showing disrespect toward both individual councillors and the council generally,” he said in a report dated June 27 that will be tabled at the council meeting on Wednesday night.

In facts that were not disputed, Harvey said Yildiz left the council meeting early on December 11 after he was unsuccessful in winning the support of other councillors to be Merri-bek’s representative to the Municipal Association of Victoria.

Iwasaki, a first-time councillor for the Bulleke-bek ward who was elected as part of a Greens clean sweep in Brunswick, had seconded an amended motion by Yildiz to appoint him as MAV representative instead of Councillor Adam Pulford, but then joined five other councillors in voting against it.

Within an hour after leaving the meeting immediately after the vote and while other councillors continued with the agenda, Yildiz published a short post to his 6500-plus followers on Facebook which questioned the integrity of his fellow councillors.

“One thing I’ve learned over the past 20 years is that the word integrity and honesty seem to have different connotations to politicians,” the post read in part. The post has since been deleted.

Yildiz subsequently “liked” other comments on his post and repeated his criticism of other councillors in his replies to other people.

Councillors Oscar Yildiz and Jay Iwasaki.

After Yildiz equivocated on an agreement to issue a public apology, Iwasaki lodged an application for a finding of misconduct against Yildiz on Feberuary 7 which alleged two breaches of the Model Councillor Code of Conduct.

A four-hour hearing was held into the complaint on May 9 where Iwasaki claimed Yildiz had undermined his and Abboud’s integrity, fostered community division, incited hostility and harmed Iwasaki’s reputation.

He argued that Yildiz’s behaviour showed signs of a broader pattern of bullying and political targeting.

Yildiz denied any intent to incite abuse or hostility or that he intended to threaten, vilify or show disrespct to his fellow councillors.

Instead, he claimed the complaint by Iwasaki was part of a broader politically motivated campaign against him.

In his decision, Harvey found that Yildiz’s post and subsequent responses fell below the standard of conduct expected of a councillor.

“Robust political debate does not give free rein for councillors to ignore the rules they have committed to uphold,” he said.

Yildiz’s suspension will take effect from Thursday this week for a period of one calendar month. He is also prohibited from any posting about council matters until he has completed training or coachng on the appropriate use of social media by a council-approved trainer.

Iwasaki told Brunswick Voice that he had taken action over Yildiz’s comments because he believed as elected representatives councillors should set a good example and be held accountable for their behaviour.

“Everybody makes mistakes and has the opportunity to learn from them, and I’m hoping we can move forward together as a council continuing to focus on our community,” he said.

Last August, Yildiz avoided sanction after former councillor Mark Riley lodged a complaint about a text message he sent to a Brunswick resident describing them as a “vile human being”.

The arbiter in that case, Jo-Anne Mazzeo, said while Yildiz had fallen below the standard expected of a councillor, she did not make a finding of misconduct because Yildiz had shown contrition and apologised to the resident. She also cited Yildiz’s “outstanding record as a councillor” as an additional reason not to make a negative finding.

Yildiz was first elected to the former Moreland Council in 2008 and has been re-elected four times. He was the city’s Mayor in 2009-10 and 2012-13 and last month was one of three representatives from Merri-bek at the Australian Local Government Association national assembly in Canberra.

He is the second Merri-bek councillor to have faced suspension for misconduct in the past year. Last September, former councillor James Conlan was found to have engaged in misconduct for public comments he had made other councillors’ positions on flying the Palestinian flag, but resigned from the council before his suspension could take effect.

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