The Advertiser Feb 6, News
South Australia
Two councillors reprimanded in a week: What has gone wrong at Mitcham Council?
Mitcham’s Mayor says it’s unrealistic to blame continuing dramas on a lack of leadership as the council faces yet more turmoil.
Caleb Bond
@TheCalebBond
5 min read
February 6, 2021 – 5:47PM
The Advertiser
Mitcham and its leafy streets may not be a place one would generally associate with controversy.
But its council is now bogged down with problems, from cancelling pre-COVID Christmas carols to bitter disputes between individual councillors and a showdown over a major infrastructure project that left some incensed and others crying.
Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross won the 2018 battle for Mitcham’s top job by 400 votes, ousting incumbent Glenn Spear. Dr Holmes-Ross, who hails from the Blackwood area – known locally as “the Hills” – was a popular local identity and businesswoman before becoming mayor.
Some of the dysfunction might have been inherited – under the previous term of council, Christmas parties were cancelled following a 2016 festive incident in which a depot worker poured sugar into the fuel tank of a privately owned truck parked outside a bowling club. An Ombudsman’s investigation found it was retaliation for a load of mulch being dumped in the council chief executive’s carparking space by a private individual. But infighting and yet more drama has marred Dr Holmes-Ross’s term of leadership – a lot of it driven by a divide between the “Hills” and “plains” of the council.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
In 2019, Mitcham dumped its annual Christmas carols event – which cost $45,000 – over concerns it cost too much and was a non-inclusive celebration of a Christian festival.
Cr Darren Kruse at the time said the “council should not be funding what fundamentally is a religious event with no co-contribution from the churches”.
The announcement came after the council imposed a 3.67 per cent rate rise upon ratepayers – one of the highest in Adelaide at the time.
Barely a week later, the council voted to reverse its decision after a mass public outcry.
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KRUSE V CHRISTOPOULOS
Cr Kruse – a “Hills” councillor – was recently found to have breached the councillor code of conduct over emails he sent to colleague Adriana Christopoulos, below, in May 2020 in which he dismissed a question she asked of the council administration as “irrelevant, vague (and) improper”.
Plains councillor Christopoulos told the Local Government Association governance panel that she felt “belittled” by Cr Kruse – and that her complaint was a response to a “pattern of behaviour” she took umbrage with, rather than just the emails themselves.
The panel found he broke the code of conduct and the council voted to make Cr Kruse prepare a public report detailing what he had done to change his behaviour.
Darren Kruse.
Darren Kruse.
Adriana Christopoulos.
Adriana Christopoulos.
But Cr Kruse dug in his heels, saying the decision would stifle free speech and followed an investigation into “hurt feelings”.
Two other code-of-conduct complaints have been made against Cr Kruse but neither has been upheld.
ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM
A month later, in June, Cr Karen Hockley broke the code of conduct four times (as later found by the governance panel) when she implied a number of her colleagues were racist in a Facebook post.
Cr Hockley accused colleagues of a “mass walkout” on Facebook when, at three minutes before the meeting’s scheduled closure, four councillors left.
She was calling for the council to voice official support for the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the councillors’ departure meant the proposal had to be pushed to the next meeting.
Karen Hockley. (AAP/Emma Brasier)
Karen Hockley. (AAP/Emma Brasier)
Jasmine Berry. Picture: Tricia Watkinson
Jasmine Berry. Picture: Tricia Watkinson
Cr Hockley suggested that racism “maybe” existed in Mitcham Council, inciting more virulent comments from members of the public.
One then-councillor, Jasmine Berry, was so distressed by the incident that she resigned her post on the council.
Cr Hockley, like Cr Kruse, labelled the findings an attack on free speech.
BLACKWOOD HUB
Dr Holmes-Ross recently gave evidence to the governance panel that there was a “Hills and plains” divide driving her council apart.
The geographical “tension”, she told the panel, was largely being caused by debate over a planned $20m library and community hub to be built in Blackwood.
That project – now scaled back to a maximum budget of $12m – sparked fierce debate between councillors on whether such a large amount of money ought to be spent in one part of the council that is thought to be somewhat distant from the other.
The $20m spend was included in the council’s 2020-21 budget, which was approved when Dr Holmes-Ross used her casting vote after the other councillors were evenly split.
It resulted in months of terse arguments, and failed attempts to thwart the project, with claims the budget decision was unfair because two Mitcham plains seats on the council were left vacant at the time due to resignations.
At the meeting late last year, where the project’s budget was eventually reduced, one councillor, Jane Bange, stormed out in protest and another, Lindy Taeuber, cried.
WHERE DID IT GO WRONG?
David Munro, who has served on the council for 10 years, believes Mitcham’s problems come down to a “lack of leadership”.
“As a leader, someone has to take ownership on bringing the team together and I don’t think anyone has taken that on,” Cr Munro said.
“You can’t just rely on the chamber to run the team.
“There’s work that needs to be done behind the scenes to build the team and get that leadership instilled in the elected members.”
He is also critical of the workload put upon Mitcham councillors, which includes weekly meetings that he believes create stress and lead to issues within the council.
Dr Holmes-Ross, however, believes it is “unrealistic” to put the issues down to a lack of leadership because the council is “made up of a group of non-aligned individuals”.
“There’s a responsibility to lead the group and I think the fact we’ve made so many decisions very close to unanimous shows there’s a team at Mitcham for sure,” Dr Holmes-Ross said.
“A mayor has influence, but at the end of the day, if people come with opposing opinions, that’s something that needs to be thrashed out in the chamber.” Dr Holmes-Ross – who says the council is entering its “best year ever” – describes the behaviour of some councillors as “unfortunate” but does not believe it reflects on the council.
“It reflects on the individuals,” she said.
Asked what she would like people to remember from this term of council, she nominated declaring a climate emergency as one of its “most important decisions”.
Under the Local Government Act, the Local Government Minister has the power to take control of a council by appointing an administrator.
Mitcham Mayor Heather-Holmes Ross. Photo: Alex Aleshin
Mitcham Mayor Heather-Holmes Ross. Photo: Alex Aleshin
But he or she can only do so on the advice of the Ombudsman, Auditor-General or independent Commissioner Against Corruption.
The minister must also be of the belief there is a serious failing or irregularity.
A State Government spokeswoman said a behaviour standards panel was being established that could “intervene as it sees fit to address serious or repeated misbehaviour” as part of the government’s local- government reforms.
“This would enable a swifter and more efficient response to matters before they escalate,” she said.
“This government’s view is that all council members should be behaving in a responsible manner and I would urge all elected officials to remind themselves that they are there to serve the public, and look at how they can work together co-operatively to deliver better services for the community.”
