There is no culture of bullying among Wyndham councillors, an independent external investigation has found.
The findings follow an official complaint late last year by Cr Glenn Goodfellow, that a culture of bullying existed among Wyndham councillors.
Council chief executive Kelly Grigsby said last week that the independent investigator found the complaint was not substantiated.
“The investigator found that it was inevitable there would be challenging discussions among councillors, given contentious issues, alternative viewpoints and the different constituencies and interests they represented,” Ms Grigsby said.
“The finding was that these did not constitute bullying.”
She said the investigator had made recommendations that the councillor code of conduct be further clarified and that training for councillors was required as there was “considerable confusion and misunderstanding as to what constituted bullying”.
Ms Grigsby said the findings and recommendations would be implemented in full.
Moving on
Cr Goodfellow said he was glad the investigation was over.
“It’s like football,” he said. “The umpire has made the decision and it’s time to move on. Am I disappointed with the outcome? Yes and no. It does show that people’s definition of bullying is different … it shows there needs to be a common understanding of what bullying is.”
Cr Goodfellow said he still had questions about the outcome and that he had made his questions known to the chief executive.
He said he would also support Ms Grigsby in the implementation of the recommendations.
“I’m happy the CEO has taken these on board and is implementing them,” he said.
Cr Goodfellow will not be re-contesting his seat on council in October’s election.
