Harper Sercombe
A further $63,599 has been spent on ongoing Hume council legal fees and related costs, new figures reveal.
At a council meeting on Monday, July 24 a report was tabled breaking down total costs incurred between October 1, 2022 and June of this year.
These costs are following ongoing matter involving councillor Trevor Dance, which to September 30, 2022 had already cost council $216,478 the report shows.
In 2022, Cr Dance applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review of a Hume council-convened councillor conduct panel’s (CCP) decision to suspend him from council for three months after finding he had engaged in serious misconduct.
The CCP found Cr Dance had breached council’s internal arbitration process by failing to attend two arbitration hearings in June, 2021, in relation to his allegations of misconduct against Cr Jack Medcraft.
Cr Dance had cited his mental health for refusing to attend the hearings, but the CCP concluded Cr Dance “did not attend the hearings because he chose not to attend in circumstances where no medical evidence to support his non-attendance was provided by him”.
Cr Dance served two weeks of his suspension before VCAT granted him a stay.
On Thursday, December 8, VCAT president Justice Michelle Quigley found Cr Dance’s claims about his mental health should have been considered more seriously.
The VCAT decision has since been appealed by Hume to the Supreme Court.
The July documents showed $23,850 was spent on the concluded VCAT matter and a further $27,368 spent on the Supreme Court appeal.
However, these costs are only relating to those incurred by room hire, security, catering and transcription, none of which relate to staffing matters.
The document also showed $12,381 spent on Cr Dance’s complaint against a Hume council arbiter to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC). Taking the total costs incurred in this dispute to $35,069, the report shows.
These latest figures bring the total expenses incurred for councillor conduct and other matters for the 2020-24 term to $280,077.
