Peter Brown is the new Greater Dandenong mayor, but only officially since Monday following last week’s improper swearing-in process that forced councillors to retake their oaths of office prior to the first meeting of the new council.By Shaun Inguanzo
ALL 11 of Greater Dandenong’s councillors were forced to retake their oaths of office following a breach of the Local Government Act last week.
Last Thursday, 1 December, the City of Greater Dandenong held its formal celebrations to welcome the new council and elect its new mayor.
Councillors had already taken their oaths of office in front of CEO Carl Wulff, elected Cr Brown to be mayor and moved on councillor allowance figures by the end of the evening.
But the following morning, council officers were given a letter from the Department of Victorian Communities (DVC), the government body responsible for administering the Local Government Act, saying that a number of councils had not followed the Act accordingly when swearing in councillors.
Mr Wulff said council officers took legal advice on the matter after realising their councillors had not taken the oath of office in verbatim form, leaving them in breach of the Act.
Mr Wulff said the Act, which has been legislation since 2003, required councillors to take the oath of office word for word and not cite interpretations of the oath’s words.
He said solicitors recommended each councillor take his or her oath again prior to last Monday’s meeting.
“Some of the words in the Act were changed in the reforms of 2003, but it is not clear in the Act that we must use those words (exactly as printed),” he said.
“The words used were the reflective words always used, but the DVC said ‘no you can’t use interpretations of words, you have to use the exact words’, which we have now done.”
Mr Wulff said the matter was not worth contesting.
“The onus was on the council (to rectify it), and the options were to tough it out and debate it, which would waste money and time, or the much easier spending 10 minutes doing what the DVC had requested.”
Councillor-elect Paul Donovan, who was absent from Monday’s meeting, must wait until later this week before he is officially and correctly sworn in.
“Councillors do not have to be sworn in in a public forum, so I will swear him in when he returns,” Mr Wulff said.
“From the time he comes back and is sworn in, he will legally be a councillor.”
Mr Wulff said the bungle did not mar original celebrations, despite the fact the entire council was not sworn in correctly.
“Thursday night has got to be seen as a ceremonial coming together as a council, with the mayor being appointed,” he said.
“The process (this week) was just to satisfy the red tape requirements of the Act.”
