Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade says her own council has 'inadvertently' provided incorrect information to the Office of the Independent Assessor inquiry.
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Cr Slade said she had written to the parliamentary inquiry saying her council has "inadvertently provided incorrect statistics" at the Mount Isa public hearing on Wednesday, March 2.
In that hearing she said Council CEO David Keenan referred to a $200,000 council spend on investigations.
"Mr Keenan has included statistics on employee investigations with the CCC when quoting Mount Isa City Council's spend on investigations in the parliamentary hearing on the Office of the Independent Assessor, but didn't provide clarity of the costs in the breakdown," Cr Slade said.
"The Parliamentary Inquiry could be under the belief that council has spent $200,000 in the last two years on external investigations on councillors"
Mr Keenan told the North West Star the details of the $200,000 spend was outlined in the transcript of the OIA hearing.
"It is noted that level of expenditure was to deal with matters from the OIA and the CCC," Mr Keenan said.
In the transcript Mr Keenan says "The $200,000 that was referred to-the majority of that has been spent on investigators, lawyers or reviewers. Within that amount, there would be a percentage of staff time but you would take $30,000 off that."
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When asked, would they be external people hired in, Mr Keenan responded, "External investigators and lawyers on legal advice, going through making sure we respond to the reports that have been put in by not just the OIA but other agencies as well such as the CCC."
Mr Keenan never specifically referred to councillors in his response to the inquiry, but Cr Slade said he may have put the Mount Isa community that the $200,000 in two years was spent on external complaints against councillors when she said it was spent mainly on investigating complaints against staff.
"I thought it was extremely important to highlight the figures supplied were incorrect when discussing complaints against councillors with the OIA," she said.
Cr Slade said she received a breakdown of all investigation costs for the entire council, from 2018 to present, which identified actual costs for councillor complaints with the OIA.
"Until this year, Mount Isa City Council has not spent any money on external investigations against councillors with the Office of the Independent Assessor or CCC," she said.
"Mount Isa City Council has spent around $150,000 from 2018 to present on four CCC investigations against council employees. Out of those four employee external investigations, one has been substantiated, two on-going investigations and one un-substantiated at of under $7000."
"This year 2022, Mount Isa City Council has had three external investigations against councillors which have a cost of $51,000. One is still on-going and the two complaints investigated by an external independent investigation found that two councillors had engaged in inappropriate conduct. Five Mount Isa Councillors voted in an ordinary meeting not to accept the officers recommendation."
Cr Slade said she wrote to committee chair to highlight the situation and provide the correct statistics.
"It's important to me that as a council we are clear, honest and transparent and adding statistics that aren't part of the discussion isn't how I want my council represented," he said.
Other councillors told the same inquiry hearing, the process had been hijacked by opponents of councillors and anonymous complaints were a problem.
In 2021 Council took a motion to the LGAQ conference to impose a $200 fee on complaints, a motion which only Cr Slade voted against in Council, though the motion was defeated at the conference.
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