War of words

By Bridget Cook
GREATER Dandenong ratepayers will have to foot the bill for a war of words between two councillors.
A Councillor Conduct Panel was appointed by the Municipal Association of Victoria in July this year to investigate a complaint made by Cr Angela Long about Cr Maria Sampey.
At Monday night’s council meeting, the results of the investigation were tabled and found that Cr Sampey had breached the councillor code of conduct.
The panel findings said that Cr Sampey breached the code when she called Cr Long a “bitch” in front of councillors, council officers and staff at the Country Place Retreat, Kalorama, on 27 March this year.
According to the findings, she also breached the code on 24 March 2010, when she stated Cr Long “(did) not have a brain” at an ordinary council meeting in front of councillors and members of the public in attendance.
Due to the misconduct, the panel ruled that Cr Sampey be reprimanded and must undertake training of a mentoring nature for 12 months, starting 1 January 2011.
The council must pick up the cost of the mentoring program, but has no indication of what that cost could be yet.
The council will be advised when the cost is known.
At Monday night’s council meeting, Cr Peter Brown and Cr John Kelly opposed the recommended course of action from the panel.
“I’m disappointed that state and federal elected Members of Parliament can say what they want, and all that happens is they are put in a parliamentary sin bin for a couple of days and that’s the end of it,” Cr Brown said.
“It seems that councillors are expected to exhibit better behavior than our state and federal counterparts.
“I think sometimes councillors should just have a thick skin and roll with the punches occasionally.
“Now the community has to pick up the bill.”
But Cr Long said she had not only lodged this complaint for herself, but also for other councillors and council staff who had been victims of Cr Sampey’s verbal attacks.
“It’s unfortunate that this matter had to go this far. An apology to me at the start would have put this to an end and wouldn’t have cost ratepayers. She refused to apologise.”
Cr Sampey was not at Monday night’s meeting, but said this week that she felt like a “victim.”
“I don’t go around saying the things I did without a reason,” she said.
“Nothing has been in put in place for councillors to stop bullying me and leave me alone.
“I don’t need 12 months training for me to behave myself – things just need to stop at their end.”