By Alesha Capone
An internal arbiter has found that a Wyndham councillor who allegedly swore at a community member did not breach standards of the Councillor Code of Conduct.
Mayor Adele Hegedich initiated a Code of Conduct process against Cr Peter Maynard in May, alleging he had breached standards outlined in code.
The matter progressed to an internal arbitration process in August, with the decision of the online hearing released at a council meeting last week.
During the hearing, those in attendance heard that Cr Maynard allegedly swore at the community member during a telephone conversation on May 6.
The community member alleged, in a written statutory declaration provided to the hearing, that Cr Maynard told him to “f*ck off” during a discussion about the council purchasing a hotel.
Cr Maynard allegedly swore at the community member after they questioned why the council had purchased the hotel, given the connection between alcohol consumption and family violence.
However, Cr Maynard denied telling the resident to “f*ck off”.
The community member’s statutory declaration said that while talking about developments at the Alfred Road Reserve later during the conversation, Cr Maynard allegedly said: “You don’t know what you are f*cking talking about”.
Cr Maynard provided a statement to the hearing, which said that he did not mean his remark to be derogatory but that “it was said in the context of a colloquialism, a comment that is part of the Australian language”.
As well, the statement said Cr Maynard would have immediately apologised if the community member had indicated they were offended, while on the telephone.
In a decision issued after the hearing, arbiter Jan Boynton wrote that she was satisfied Cr Maynard had not breached standards of the Councillor Code of Conduct.
But the decision did state that Ms Boynton believed the language used by Cr Maynard “was colourful, inappropriate, and showed a lack of judgement by an elected representative”.
Ms Boynton also wrote she had been “impressed with the genuine willingness” of Cr Maynard “to acknowledge his behaviour and to seek to remedy the impact by providing a written apology to the community member”.
