Tension in tea room ends in an apology

A LOCAL councillor and former Tasmania Australian of the Year says she has been denied natural justice at the investigation into a code of conduct complaint against her.

Sorell councillor Deborah de Williams has had a complaint upheld against her from a resident and has been directed by a code of conduct panel to write a personal apology to the resident.

Sharon Fotheringham had complained that, on February 18, an incident took place in the tea room next to the council chambers where Ms de Williams entered the room and allegedly said: “I want to get out of here as quickly as possible away from a certain person.”

The panel said Ms Fotheringham believed the comment was directed at her and she found it offensive and embarrassing, that she was not treated fairly and the action was bullying.

Ms Fotheringham also alleged when she stood to address the council during public question time, Ms de Williams immediately turned her back, which she found to be “an act of rudeness which caused her offence and embarrassment”.

In her official response to the panel, Ms de Williams said Ms Fotheringham had misinterpreted both incidents. She said at the time she was “mentally engaged and focused on council business and other personal matters”.

The panel dismissed the part of the complaint relating to the incident during public question time, but upheld the part relating to the tea room incident. The panel imposed a caution on Ms de Williams and have required her to write a personal apology to Ms Fotheringham “for any distress she may have felt as a result of the incident in the tea room”.

Ms de Williams said the matter should have gone to a full hearing, she had been denied natural justice and she would be raising the matter with the minister.

She said she would have appealed the decision but because of lost income from the pandemic, she could not afford to take the matter to the Magistrates Court.

“For such a small, trivial matter, which I believe the panel got wrong and which was based on hearsay, I just don’t have the money,” she said.

“When I said what I said in the tea room, it was just ‘I’ve got to get out of here’.

“I was speaking to another councillor — I’d been having issues with my daughter being bullied so that was weighing on my mind. I’m in this position where this is being made public and it really upset me because all I’ve ever tried to do is the right thing by the community.”

Ms de Williams was made a Member of Australia in 2015 for significant service to the community through contributions to a range of cancer support organisations and to ultra marathon running.