Local Government Division releases results of investigation into Derwent Valley Council SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON, Urban Affairs Reporter, Mercury August 19, 2017 12:00am
DERWENT Valley Mayor Martyn Evans says he won’t stand for council again in the wake of an investigation in which he and general manager Greg Winton were reprimanded for a loan from the council for Cr Evans’ car.
The loan of nearly $7000 to Cr Evans was authorised by Mr Winton without the wider approval of elected members — one of a number of findings in an investigation by Local Government Director Alex Tay.
It followed a number of complaints about the governance and operational performance of the council in October to December last year and was made public yesterday. Mr Winton and the council also received a reprimand from the Local Government Division for a $100,000 loan to the Derwent Valley PCYC — also without consulting elected members.
The investigation, revealed by the Mercury in March, looked at issues such as the management of council funds, the implementation of and adherence to council policies and a failure to adopt the Local Government Division’s model for code of conduct and the management of relationships.
Mr Tay found:
THAT a loan of $6852.73 of ratepayers’ money to a councillor in January last year was made to Cr Evans and authorised by Mr Winton without wider approval from the council’s elected members.
MR WINTON also made a $100,000 loan to the PCYC without the appropriate approval by council, notwithstanding that the mayor and Deputy Mayor Ben Shaw were aware of it.
THERE was a lack of transparency in council decisions.
The report made 15 recommendations and Cr Evans said he was happy with them but described the reprimands as a farce.
“I’m happy the report was done, we’ve already started on some of the recommendations,” he said. “But there are definitely things in the report that I refute, I’m not happy with all the reprimands.
“I think the loan to the mayor was a farce. It’s my car, it’s my personal vehicle and the engine blew on the way to a TasWater meeting when I was going there on council business. I must have driven around 150,000km in that car for council business. I didn’t have a council car.”
Cr Evans said he would not stand in next year’s local government elections. “I definitely won’t be involved,” he said.
“As much as I love the community and representing it, some people make it so hard to do so and want to drag the council through the mud.”
In a statement Mr Winton said he and councillors welcomed the report recommendations and would make council operations more effective and transparent.
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TASMANIAN TIMES REPORT: “Already underway is an organisational study of the Council’s administrative processes and the relationship between senior managers and elected Councillors. ...The study and subsequent report will be conducted by UTAS and will be framed on the
department of Premier and Cabinet’s Good Governance Guide for Local Government in Tasmania (2016)............” CLICK HERE – http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/pr-article/derwent-valley-council-takes-action-/
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EDITORIAL NOTE: Whatever the rights and wrongs here its clear that there’s been some shonkiness in play given the 15 undisclosed recommendations. An old bureaucrat in another field has said off the record that all this is more dumb than shonky which actually says a lot about fiscal accountability. Anyway Cr. Evans has had enough and he’s heading for the hills next time round.
The possibility here is that good old SECTION 62 of the Local Government Act has come into play and its turned out that it is in fact out of order. Also its on the cards that there is more of this sort of stuff going on around the state. If it’s only say $10,000 per annum per council on average ( 29 councils) that’s a swag of Tasmanians’ money being applied inappropriately or less than ideally.
These stories tend to be too hard to report on, or they fail the interest test, but this one this time comes at a time when Local Government accountability is somewhat in the spotlight not to mention the impending State Government election and next year being a Local Government election year.
Increasingly ratepayers are wondering about the ability of Local Government to meet community needs and the standards of accountably. When councils hide behind closed doors to make decisions this inevitably raises questions. When it is totally mystifying as to why this sort of thing might happen people worry.
Likewise when arguments arise against the rationalisation of Local Government in favour of the status quo this too is worrying .Its been said that in the area of Local Government there is about $2Billion over 29 council that could spent more effectively. Why are councils so resistant to change that is real and meaningful change.
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