Two years after being sent details of Council's investigation into his conduct, the Office of Local Government has reprimanded Councillor Matt Brown for engaging in misconduct while representing Kiama Council at a tourism conference in Townsville in November 2018.

The Bugle has only just become aware of the decision, which was made on 18 June and made publicly available on the Office's website.

The website shows that Councillor Warren Steel was also reprimanded in March this year, another decision that The Bugle and the public were not aware about.

When contacted for comment, Cllr Brown said that it wouldn't serve any public purpose to report on it, "It is an old news that basically confirms I told the truth all that time ago.

"Everyone knows I went through a rough patch back then."

He believes the referral to the Office was politically motivated.

"I am concentrating on moving forward now I have got over that patch in my life and I am about to announce a great ticket with some great policies, and I have been working hard as a councillor," he says.

Councillor Matt Brown

The matter was referred to the Office by Kiama Council in May 2019, after an independent investigation into allegations of breaches of the Code of Conduct by Cllr Brown when he was in Townsville, representing Kiama at a tourism conference, concluded the breaches occurred.

A confidential session of the Kiama Council's May meeting accepted the findings and adopted the recommendations of the report, which required Cllr Brown to undertake a ‘training period’ for the rest of his term, and ban him from attending any more conferences.

In this latest decision, the Acting Deputy Secretary, Local Government, Planning and Policy, also imposed another penalty - suspending Cllr Brown's 'right to be paid any fee or other remuneration to which he would otherwise have been entitled as a holder of civic office for a period of one month (without suspending him from civic office for that period)'. This equates to one twelfth of $19,000.

The Acting Deputy Secretary's statement of reasons for reprimanding Cllr Brown and suspending his right to be paid for that period has been made public, and includes:

'Councillors must conduct themselves when carrying out their functions in a manner that does not bring Council or holders of civic office into disrepute and their conduct must be proper and ethical. They must also act lawfully, honestly and exercise a reasonable degree of care and diligence in carrying out their functions under the Act. Clr Brown engaged in conduct at the Conference that fell significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of Councillors.”

He noted that Cllr Brown has made a public apology for his actions.

Harsher penalties could have been imposed, including suspending the councillor from civic office for a period of up to three months.

Mayor Mark Honey and the CEO Jane Stroud saw the response from the Office of Local Government and acted on it, but it was not reported in Business Papers for the July Meeting of Council or communicated in any other way.

"There was no compulsion to put in the business papers," says Mayor Honey.

"Sometimes you have to respect people's privacy. I know it was an incident that happened in the public arena, but there is still an element of privacy involved."

It seems that Council has followed this process earlier in the year, when a decision of the Office of Local Government (again available on their website) reprimanded Councillor Warren Steel for misconduct in failing to manage a conflict of interest when considering a DA at the December 2017 Meeting.

The Office found that Cllr Steel took no action to manage the conflict, and noted: "A reprimand and publication of a statement of reasons is warranted to communicate the seriousness of this, having regard to the importance of the public being able to have confidence in the probity of Council’s decision-making processes. It is also important to deter others from engaging in similar conduct.” 

The Deputy Secretary's report goes on to say, "While suspension has been imposed in other matters where a councillor has failed to disclose a conflict of interest, in this case, I believe due regard can be had to Clr Steel’s extensive period of unblemished public service prior to this instance of misconduct, and his full cooperation with the investigative process." 

When contacted by The Bugle, Councillor Steel contended that he believes he did nothing wrong.

The full reports are available at www.olg.nsw.gov.au