ELECTED COUNCILLORS SIGN THE OATH OF OFFICE
PUBLIC IMAGE AND WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
M. Zafiropolous
Koonung
Dot Haynes
Koonung
Anna Chen
Koonung
I recognise that Councillors play a key role, both individually and collectively, in maintaining a positive public image and in preserving public confidence in the Council.
I will: a) use my best endeavours to build and maintain sound and productive working relationships with fellow Councillors (b) refrain
Paul McLeish
Mullum Mullum
Sophy Galbally
Mullum Mullum
Andrew Conlan
Mullum Mullum
from actions that may damage the image of the Council and my Councillor colleagues (c) ensure that my communications do not contain remarks of a personal, derogatory, insulting or offensive nature directed at current and former Councillors or Council staff. (Communication mediums include but
Paula Piccinini
Heidi
Michelle Kleinert
Heidi
Geoff Gough
Heidi
are not limited to verbal, letters, faxes, emails, SMS messages, and any social media (d) ensure that any comments I make on social media are clearly identified as personal opinions that do not necessarily reflect the views of the Council (e) ensure that a any media statements are factual and devoid of comments that could reasonably be construed as being derogatory, offensive or insulting to any person
and that such comments are clearly identified as personal opinions that do not necessarily reflect the views of Council. No views or positions are to be attributed to other Councillors without their express consent (f) provide the Mayor, CEO and Manager Community Relations and Marketing with a copy of all material that I provide to media outlets (i.e. daily newspapers, Manningham circulation newspapers and electronic/online services) within 24 hours of doing so; and (g) conduct myself in public forums respectfully and with appropriate decorum.
8 Comments
Councillors should not be constrained and be free to make or write comments on issues such as council’s policy on transport, over development, pedestrian safety and public car parking etc. but never to publicly criticise or question the ability of council staff, current or former councillors.
In principle yes but not always in practice. If things are not working properly because council is being politicised and there is bullying then a councillor has a duty to the ratepayer to expose the problem.
The community want their councillors to concentrate on making things better for the residents they represent and not pursuing political careers that might involve them in decisions that are not in the best interests of the ratepayers.
Why can’t we have an extra councillor in the Koonung Ward where most of the development is occurring? To make the situation worse one of our councillors resigned to pursue a political career leaving us with only two councillors to represent Koonung and only one of them seemed prepared to return calls.
According to the VEC more than half of the candidates elected to fill the 637 council vacancies across the Victoria were new.
323 new councillors have taken the oath of office replacing incumbents who had been voted out or retired. Also the number of female councillors elected has risen from 34% at the last election to 38%. These results indicate a widespread dissatisfaction with councillor performances. Manningham had four newly elected with women filling five of the nine vacancies.
Councillors are told they have no power which may be so if they are divided but not if they are united. I would like to see councillors meet socially to decide on issues. Councillors seem to get the blame for just about everything, it is time they did something about it.
Hopefully the election results will mean there will be no more critical and sarcastic comments about councillor colleagues or former councillors in the leader newspaper.
When it comes to local government the community expect councillors to follow their code of conduct while in office. During the year there was a newspaper article inferring that a select group of councillors were inappropriately involved in the election of the mayor and later an article questioning the ability of the person elected. It may well have been true but the complainant should have gone through the appropriate channels to have the matter dealt with instead of going to the newspaper.