WA’s State Administrative Tribunal has ordered former City of Cockburn councillor, Lee-Anne Smith OAM, to issue a public apology to former Cockburn council CEO, Stephen Cain, the Council and the public over code of conduct issues dating back to 2019.
The Tribunal last week censured Ms Smith for breaches of City of Cockburn Council’s code of conduct over a misleading and derogatory Facebook post she wrote about Mr Cain on 7 November 2019.
It also found that she failed to make an impartiality declaration at Special Council Meetings held on three occasions between November 2019 and January 2020.
Ms Smith was a councillor with City of Cockburn for more than a decade – between 2009 and 2021. She has also previously held the position of Deputy Mayor with the City.
“The Tribunal censures Ms Smith for the breach of regulations and the three breaches of regulation 11 of the Local Government (Rules of Conduct) Regulations 2007 (WA),” the Tribunal stated.
In a public apology from Ms Smith, published by the Council on social media, the former councillor stated that a complaint about her had been made to the Local Government Standards Panel regarding the Facebook post and impartiality breaches in Council dealings.
“The Panel found that I thereby breached regulation 7(1)(b) and 11 of the said Regulations,” Ms Smith wrote.
“In its decision…the State Administrative Tribunal upheld this finding and ordered that a public apology be made.
“I accept that I should not have made the derogatory and offensive comments.
“I now apologise to Mr Stephen Cain, the Council and the public for my conduct.”
Mr Cain – who had held the position of CEO with City of Cockburn Council for 15 years – moved to the City of Swan Council in December last year to take up the organisation’s Chief Executive role, while Ms Smith now works as a manager at Kimberley Language Resource Centre.
