EVEN by the standards of recent Glenelg Shire Council meetings, Tuesday night’s one was something else – accusations, interjections, apologies and even a threatened walk-out.

In the end, there was even some work done.

The at-times rowdy meeting at the Portland Arts Centre featured public apologies from two councillors, several members of the public unhappy with the answers they received during question time, then some pointed comments at Deputy Mayor Jayden Smith leading him to declare he was “done for the night” and would leave.

That was averted after councillors called a five-minute recess and while the rest of the meeting proceeded, it was against a backdrop of continual noise from the small public gallery.

The meeting began with the highly unusual scene of two councillors making a public apology.

The first was by Mayor Scott Martin for comments he made in the Observer of November 18, relating to the search for a new council chief executive.

Cr Martin said the comments were “poorly worded”.

Then Gilbert Wilson also stood to make a public apology “to council for my behaviour after the statutory meeting”.

He was referring to the October 26 meeting which included the mayoral election.

While not explicit about what his behaviour was, the Observer understands it was for comments he made to Cr Smith following a mistake the latter made during a motion about dates and venues of council meetings for the next 12 months.  

That was only the preamble for Cr Martin’s first meeting in charge as Mayor, as the focus then moved to questions from the public.

There were 12 questions asked about various subjects but two of them, by David Punton and Matt Jowett, referred to Cr Smith and his comments at the June meeting which adopted the budget that he would decline his council allowance for the next year.

However, a report at the last council meeting in October showed he had continued to receive it and Mr Punton asked why.

Cr Martin said Mr Punton – who had directed his question at Cr Smith – should take the matter up with Cr Smith in his own time – the council’s governance rules state that the Mayor can answer questions or get a staff member to do so, with no opportunity to question other councillors in that forum.

Mr Jowett later asked Cr Martin what steps he had taken given that it appeared Cr Smith had not returned the allowance.

Cr Martin said “Looking into other people’s payments and their finances would not be appropriate, they are done quarterly and obviously on the record”.

Mr Jowett then asked Cr Martin how confident he was working with Cr Smith to which the Mayor responded “I’d be happy to work with Cr Smith any day”.

Mike Noske was the final questioner and said while council officers had told him and others that several agencies, the Local Government Minister and Opposition politicians had all signed off on the rates decision when he had an email from the Essential Services Commission’s executive director from October saying the ESC was still assessing compliance with the Fair Go rating system, with a reported expected to be released in December.

Mr Noske asked what the council would do if the ESC declared the rates increase was illegal.

“We would follow directions,” Cr Martin said.

“That hasn’t come back, it’s a hypothetical.”

Much of question time was interspersed with cries of “answer the question” and similar remarks, while Cr Martin also warned Mr Noske and another questioner, Gary Humm, about excessive preamble to their questions and called for them to get straight to it – at one stage saying he would eject Mr Humm from the meeting for continuing to speak after he was told not to.

When Cr Martin moved on to the next item on the agenda, declarations of conflicts of interest, Cr Smith stood to state his one.

However, he continued on “I’m done for the night, I’m sorry” and was about to add to that when Michael Carr, who was attending via an internet link, quickly called for a five-minute recess, seconded by Chrissy Hawker.

The meeting then resumed after the recess with Cr Smith still in attendance but with continual loud comments from the gallery, particularly following the debate on the Bunnings application (full story in Tuesday’s Observer).  

Cr Smith declined to comment to the Observer on the matter of his councillor allowance, but said he would do so with members of the public who took it up with him directly – as he did on the night with Mr Jowett, who stayed around after the meeting – but did address the circumstances around his declaration that he would leave the meeting.

“I love my job as a councillor, it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done,” he told the Observer.

“But it’s also the toughest. There’s something in me that can’t walk away from this job, in this role that I’ve been asked to do and I think it says a bit about its importance and how special it is to me.

“At the same time it’s a very treacherous arena to be in and I do not take it lightly to leave a meeting.

“It’s a culmination of many things including being called explicit names (on Tuesday night) and demeaned by a fellow councillor for making a slight error during a meeting (during the October 26 special council meeting).

“I’m not a robot, I’m going to make mistakes in the future.

“Also being the youngest councillor (at 28) would increase the likelihood of me making a mistake – you live and you learn.

“I never expected local government to be easy but I did have expectations for what I thought was the main requirement as far as treatment of other people and treatment of myself.

“If you give respect to people, you’ll get it back – perhaps I was a little naive in thinking that.”

Cr Smith said councillors were happy for the public to have their say at meetings “I’ve got every bit of respect for people who want to come and keep us in check” – but that needed to be returned.

“At every tier of government people feel like they aren’t being heard,” he said.

“But for me personally to seriously take on someone’s consideration, they don’t have to yell and scream at me.”

And he hoped others in the community would attend future council meetings – traditionally aside from the Observer there have been very few, if any, members of the public attend meetings in recent years apart from when a controversial issue might be discussed.

In recent months, following the June budget meeting, there have been a handful of regulars.

“I know myself I’d like to see the community attend,” Cr Smith said.

“Obviously we’ve been through a lot in the last 12 months but personally I know myself I take great encouragement from the support of those around me just to keep in check and make sure I’m taking the right path.

“We’re just human beings, we’re in a tough job.

“We would like to see evidence of people out there who support us and encourage us to keep moving forward into the future because we are doing really good things and I can’t wait to see what we do into the future as a council.”