GRANT District Council chief executive officer David Singe has warned elected members not to use personal emails for any council related matters given it is a potential “code of conduct” breach.
At council’s recent meeting, Mr Singe particularly singled out Mayor Richard Sage in regards to the use of personal emails for council business.
“I have had a discussion with the Mayor (Sage) long ago,” the council chief said.
“This is a contentious issue and there is not a great record necessarily with Grant District Council.”
According to the Local Government Act, elected members should not use personal emails for council-related matters.
But the legislation clarifies that if council related business appears on a personal email account, this should be forwarded to council so it could be captured on its electronic system.
Each elected member is issued with a specific council email address.
It is understood the issue was highlighted when an important piece of correspondence could not be located at Grant District Council.
“It is an issue the Ombudman’s office keeps a very, very close eye on and I am really, really concerned that we make sure that this part of the law is compiled with,” Mr Singe told the meeting.
Mr Singe said there were examples at other councils where “they have gone pear-shaped” due to non-compliance.
“I would not quite honestly be associated with something when the letter of the law is not being abided with in terms of material,” he said.
“Given we have a new council, we have the opportunity to reinforce that everybody in an elected position receives an email that is either yours at council or private, it must be on our records.”
At the meeting, Mr Sage questioned whether emails between councillors needed to be logged.
Mr Singe said council’s record system was comprehensive with everything going into the electronic records system.
Speaking to The Border Watch, Mr Sage said he ensured all council related matters on his personal email was “logged by council”.
