Councillors on notice under law

LOCAL councillors behaving badly will be booted out for a year by the state minister under new laws to be introduced to parliament today.

The changes would also allow for mayors serving twoyear terms to be ousted by three-quarters of their fellow councillors.

Local Government Minister Marlene Kairouz said the reforms aimed to make councils more accountable.

“Mayors and councillors who behave badly will be gone for a year — the days of them acting with impunity are over,” Ms Kairouz said.

The minister will have the power to suspend a councillor who poses a “significant threat’’ to the governance of the council.

Until now, the state could sack a council but not an individual.

The State Government sacked the Darryn Lyons-led Geelong council in 2016 and Central Goldfields last year.

The new laws also aim to ensure that service charges, such as waste levies, do not exceed the cost of providing those services.

The move comes in the aftermath to a report by the state Ombudsman into the use of Wodonga City Council’s waste levy.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass found the council collected at least $18 million extra from its waste levy over a decade, and used the surplus — about 30 per cent — to pay for other council services.

Under the reforms, Victorian mayors will also have to report annually to ratepayers and councils will have to set four-year budgets, in line with state and federal accounting practices, with the aim of setting higher standards in financial management and strategy.

Ms Kairouz said the changes would make councils more accountable and in tune with their communities’ needs. “We want councils focused on the long-term and these changes will help them do exactly that,” she said.