By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
FORMER Greater Dandenong mayor Pinar Yesil, who had sought high standards from her fellow councillors, has been dumped for missing council meetings.
“This is not the way I wanted to end my career on council,” she said in a statement last week.
Ms Yesil was removed as a councillor of seven years after missing four consecutive ordinary council meetings without a leave of absence. The last of those was on August 28.
Although she had sent apologies before each meeting, her absence was deemed to breach the Local Government Act.
Ms Yesil said she had been visiting Turkey since July 3 because of “urgent health issues in my family”. She arrived back in Australia on September 1. Two days later, her council phone was disconnected and her profile on the council’s website was erased.
As mayor in 2009, Ms Yesil created a stir when she pushed for high standards of councillor conduct through an accessibility, transparency and accountability charter, which required a public record of councillors’ attendances at ordinary council meetings, displayed on the council’s website. The website last week showed Ms Yesil hadn’t attended a council meeting or briefing session since June 25.
Cr John Kelly last week said “perhaps the charter has come back to bite her”. Cr Peter Brown said it was a “very good or disappointing example of the clash of responsibilities of private and public life”. “Being a councillor comes at a cost of your private life. She put her private life first and paid the price.”
Cr Jim Memeti said a “shocked” Ms Yesil had thought she had done the right thing but was undone on a “technicality”. “Why didn’t the CEO let her know of her responsibilities? As a council, we should have something in place for when three meetings are missed the alarm bells should go off.”
Ms Yesil said she informed Greater Dandenong chief executive John Bennie she would be on leave until the end of August and asked he advise of any issues with the request.
She said she believed she had “taken the necessary steps to comply” with the act and would likely seek an appeal. She said she had not intended to renominate in the council election on October 27.
Mr Bennie said Ms Yesil’s vacancy was not likely to be filled ahead of the election — a matter upon which councillors are expected to vote on tonight (Monday).
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