Mayor to stay ... but loses support of councillor

Calls for Cr Betts to stand down have been growing since a heated exchange with Councillor Harold Clapham was captured on an Edward River Council meeting live stream Tuesday evening last week.

It stemmed from an issue around an apology for non-attendance by Cr Pat Fogarty, during which Cr Betts was labelled “heartless” and Cr Clapham was asked by the mayor to leave the council chambers.

Community members have expressed their views of the exchange, predominantly on social media.

Comments from ratepayers and the general public, predominantly on social media, have been levelled at both Cr Betts and Cr Clapham for the way in which they spoke to each other.

A greater number of them have criticised Cr Betts and are demanding she be held to account.

Cr Betts maintains she was merely following protocol by having the non-attendance of Cr Fogarty and Cr Shirlee Burge without a formal leave of absence for that particular meeting noted in the minutes.

She said she has since been supported in that stance by the Office of Local Government.

While acknowledging the discussions taking place on social media, Cr Betts said not everyone felt the same and asked the community to be more respectful.

She said her family has been impacted by the commentary which has surrounded what she described as a “one sided, two minute meeting.” after which “judgements have been made”.

“I have received a lot of calls of support, with a lot of people believing it was Harold who spoke out of turn and they felt it was no way for a community leader to speak (to me),” Cr Betts said.

“Yes the commentary on social media is overwhelming, but I have been more overwhelmed by the support that has come in to me from the wider community, other mayors and the Office of Local Government.

“It is farcical and embarrassing to have continued backlash. Am I tired of all the smashings? Yes I am.

“As a community, we want to work together. You need to respect the role people play in the community.

“This community will not continue to grow if we continue to eat our young.”

It’s not just ratepayers who witnessed the exchange who are calling for the mayor to step down from her leadership role.

Cr Fogarty last week said “I simply cannot condone the mayor’s actions to one of my fellow councillors, and to not call for her resignation would be doing just that - condoning those actions”.

Cr Shirlee Burge has now hit out and withdrawn her support for Cr Betts, after only recently being part of the council group which had agreed to support the mayor through to the September local government elections.

“We did this in order to maintain stability and calm after the events of March 19 (when council voted to dismiss CEO Phil Stone effective immediately). I have now withdrawn my support,” Cr Burge said, saying the change followed the actions of the mayor.

“Given the outrage of the community, which I believe has led some to even ask for council to be placed into administration, it is in the best interests of this council to get through to the September local government election.

“In the interest of smooth sailing to that election, I think Peta should remain on council but not as mayor.”

Cr Burge - who has expressed that we make it clear “my views are not necessarily those of my fellow councillors” - said she also could not condone the way the mayor spoke to Cr Clapham.

This latest dispute also stems from changes to the resolution which led to the appointment of Mark Dalzell as acting CEO following Mr Stone’s termination.

Cr Betts was not involved in a confidential part of the meeting on March 19 which discussed the termination of Mr Stone due to a conflict of interest (the exact nature of which has not been disclosed), but according to a statement released after the meeting by Cr Burge, “Mayor Betts absented herself from the decision-making process (but) has subsequently supported the decision made by council”.

In her statement Cr Burge concluded with: “Our job now is to stabilize our operations, ensure the welfare and support of ERC staff and get on with the business of council”.

Cr Burge moved the motion to terminate the contract of the CEO, and said all councillors agreed that she would release a statement, however she said at 6.30pm the same night she was “admonished” by the mayor for releasing the statement.

The mayor then received support from Crs Linda Fawns and Shannon Sampson to call an extraordinary meeting, seeking changes to the wording of the original resolution.

The Pastoral Times has seen a copy of an email sent by Cr Burge to all councillors, in which she described the extraordinary meeting as “both disruptive and unnecessary”.

“Acting CEO Dalzell has performed exceptionally in this crisis as have his executives. They are professionals and behaved impeccably as the incident unfurled even as they were shocked and disturbed they carried on with integrity.

“Resolution 4 in the original can be easily by-passed by following normal council procedure to recruit.”

Cr Burge claimed there was collaboration to hold the extraordinary meeting to vote on the new resolution when Cr Fogarty was going to be absent and said “this action is disruptive to the community, to staff and continues to display we cannot work together in harmony and respect for each other and just get the job done.”

She advised she would not be attending the extraordinary meeting and that “it should be cancelled”.

At the extraordinary meeting, Cr Betts noted the absence of Crs Burge and Fogarty and said neither had applied for an apology or an application for leave of absence, adding “please note it accordingly”.