WHITTLESEA: Silenced Councillors exposed in TV report
A Seven News report said that not a single City of Whittlesea Councillor would discuss the crisis currently facing the municipality, each recycling the Council administration-led instruction that the matter was subject to confidential correspondence.
All Councillors, most of them elected for the first time last October, appear to have taken the advice of Mr Lloyd and/or Council staff at face value.
Not one Councillor has reported to the community that the Mayor has been stymied in carryiong out his duties.
“Since when has democracy become a secret,” said one local government veteran. “Not one Councillor has had the courage to share the news with the public that the Council has already become dysfunctional.”
Meanwhile, Nicolas Karamouzis, the lawyer for under-pressure Mayor Cr Aidan McLindon, said that a letter from Council CEO Craig Lloyd to the Mayor, could be shared, as it was a matter of public interest. Any branding of the letter as ‘Confidential’ could be ignored.
Mr Karamouzis told Seven News that bans on Cr McLindon from attending Council premises, and from speaking with his Councillor colleagues, were “insanity’. The lawyer said the bans were not consistent with the law.
Cr McLindon, interviewed by Seven News report Paul Dowlsey, said that the Mayor’s card to access the South Morang Council headquarters, had been activated. All office suport had been withdrawn.
Mr Dowsley said that neither the Council or the Councillors would tell its public what was going on. He suggested the matter was likley to come to a head at the next scheduled meeting on Tuesday (Mar. 18).