A long-running dispute involving three councillors will come to a head when the findings of a conduct panel are revealed at this Wednesday’s City of Greater Bendigo meeting. 

Councillors Helen Leach and Elise Chapman have accused Councillor Peter Cox of misconduct during his tenure as mayor last year. If substantiated, those accusations could see him reprimanded, ordered to apologise or stood down for a period of up to two months. 

The independent panel’s decision was made on March 7, culminating a process which cost the city $11,500 – council was required to meet the cost of its members’ time and expenses. 

That figure brought the total cost this financial year for council’s conduct-related matters to $25,648. 

The council report for this item states that an additional $5000 was allocated towards costs associated with the council officer who is the registrar for conduct panels. 

The city, Cr Chapman and Cr Cox were contacted and chose not to comment for this article. Cr Leach could not be contacted for comment. 

At the same meeting, councillors will be asked to endorse a new model for dealing with councillor disputes internally. 

The changes come about following reform to the Local Government Act aimed to both prevent “vindictive” and “vexatious” allegations of misconduct and beef-up powers to reprimand councillors found to have breached their code of conduct. 

Bendigo councillors will be asked to resolve future disputes internally when they meet this week in a bid to prevent “frivolous, vindictive, vexatious or unsubstantiated” allegations of misconduct. 

The move follows amendments to the Local Government Act which came into effect this month. 

The motion to be tabled at this Wednesday’s City of Greater Bendigo meeting will ask councillors to insert an ‘internal resolution procedure’ into the Councillor Code of Conduct, which would apply when a councillor or group of councillors allege a breach of that code by one of their colleagues.

The report accompanying this item states that the procedure is not intended to resolve differences in policy or decision making.

“[But] where a councillor or group of councillors allege a possible contravention of the councillor code of conduct that, on the face of it, appears to be frivolous, vindictive, vexatious, unsubstantiated or based on a misunderstanding or unintentional act,” it reads. 

“Such a matter should be brought to the next councillor forum for discussion with a view to clarifying the issue forming the basis of the allegation and, if possible, early resolution of the matter.” 

Instead of being referred to a conduct panel, allegations of misconduct would be handled by a principal conduct officer, who would arrange formal mediation.

The council report described these reforms as “too important to wait for the overarching review” of the act – which is currently underway – to be completed.

“It is unknown whether or not the process will have to be used, however, if the process is used, the cost of the arbiter and timeframes will be considerably less than a conduct panel,” it reads.  

“If the matter is not resolved through an arbiter and council imposed sanctions, the process could take longer and be more costly, with the overall package of measures introduced by the state government, it is likely that costs associated with breaches of the code of conduct will be reduced.”

Councillor disputes have cost the city more than $30,000 this financial year alone. 

The city’s current cohort of councillors has been plagued by infighting.

Over the last three years, four City of Greater Bendigo councillor have been called in front of a conduct panel. 

The full council agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting is below.