Whittlesea councillor Aidan McLindon is not eligible to be mayor or deputy mayor for 12 months and has been ordered to apologise to council staff and undertake training and counselling, under sanctions handed down by an independent arbiter.
Arbiter J A Silver’s report into a series of internal arbitration processes at Whittlesea council relating to Cr McLindon have been released by the council as part of the agenda for its meeting on Tuesday 16 December.
The report, which will be tabled at the meeting, states that Mr Silver found Cr McLindon engaged in misconduct, however some of the allegations against him were dismissed.
Mr Silver handed down three sanctions to Cr McLindon, being that he must make an apology to council staff at the next council meeting after 16 December, undertake a course of training and counselling to improve diary and time management by April, and that he is not eligible to hold the office of mayor and deputy mayor for 12 months.
This means Cr McLindon will not be able to nominate for either role when the city’s new mayor and deputy mayor are elected in November 2026.
Mr Silver’s report related to four internal arbitration applications against Cr McLindon lodged in February and March.
The first application was signed off by all Whittlesea councillors except Cr McLindon, while the others were lodged by Cr Lawrie Cox, Cr Blair Colwell and Cr David Lenberg. Cr Lenberg later withdrew his application.
According to the report, the arbitration processes were suspended between April and October after the Governor in Council suspended Cr McLindon for six months.
According to the arbiter’s report, the application lodged by Whittlesea’s 10 other councillors concerned comments Cr McLindon made during an interview on Sky News’ Outsiders program on 26 January, an interview on 3AW on 23 January, a story published by Star Weekly on 21 January and a story published by The Age on 21 January, as well as comments Cr McLindon made on Facebook.
Fifteen alleged Model Councillor Code of Conduct breaches were identified in the application – 14 of them were dismissed.
Mr Silver found the remaining alleged breach to be proven, stating that Cr McLindon’s comment on Outsiders that councillors have “just … enough time to read what’s put in front of them … and rubber stamp it” would be understood by a reasonable person that in his experience, Whittlesea council staff were not providing documents for consideration by councillors in a timely manner.
Mr Silver said this was “misleading the public”, which is a breach of the Model Councillor Code of Conduct.
According to the report, the applications lodged by Crs Cox and Colwell related to two alleged breaches of the code.
Mr Silver said the first alleged breach related to a councillor briefing on 4 February at which Cr McLindon made a statement to the effect that he had engaged legal representation in relation to the application made by the 10 other councillors.
Mr Silver’s report stated that Cr McLindon said councillors should consider the consequences of putting their names on any application for internal arbitration.
The second alleged breach related to an email Cr McLindon sent to a member of the public on 11 February, which included a statement that council had “been in recess” since 17 December and would resume on 18 February. Cr Colwell, who lodged this particular complaint, argued the statement was false because council had met during that period.
Mr Silver dismissed the second alleged breach, saying he was not satisfied Cr McLindon had sought to “deliberately mislead” the public.
In relation to the first allegation, Mr Silver stated Cr McLindon’s statement was “a threat”.
“He was not concerned for his colleagues, he was concerned for himself. No other conclusion can be reached on a statement that, if adverse action were taken against Cr McLindon, ‘there may be ramifications’,” Mr Silver stated.
The arbiter found that in making the statement, Cr McLindon had failed to treat his colleagues with courtesy and respect by engaging in threatening behaviour.
Mr Silver stated that prior to Cr McLindon’s suspension from council, he had intended to direct that Cr McLindon was ineligible to be mayor or deputy mayor for 12 months – which would have removed him from his role as mayor – and suspend him for one month.
Mr Silver said while Cr McLindon should be suspended for one month, he would not suspend him further given he recently returned to council following the six-month suspension imposed by the Governor in Council.
