Another elected member has been cautioned for breaching the code of conduct in the George Town Council, taking the municipality's tally to three cautions in a matter of months.
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Councillor Heather Barwick is the latest to be cautioned after she contacted a contractor without appropriate authorisation in June.
Under the code, a councillor must not contact or issue instructions to any of the council's contractors or tenderers, without appropriate authorisation. She was found to have breached this and received a caution earlier this month.
She admitted to contacting the Lange Design owner without authorisation. However, she claimed she was merely seeking clarification of some aspects of the most recent plan of Regent Square and in no way did she issue instructions or direct them on how to do their job.
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The complaint came from mayor Greg Kieser, who has received the council's other two cautions since he stepped into the position in mid-2019.
His two cautions have related to the same code of conduct breach. Where he was found to have treated two councillors unfairly and caused offence and embarrassment.
Cr Kieser received his first code of conduct caution in August for his treatment of Cr Barwick during a closed council meeting in January. It was found Cr Kieser raised his voice and directed it at Cr Barwick on a number of occasions, used hand gestures directed at her and used the words "you are done" on several occasions.
Cr Kieser admitted he had raised his voice and used hand gestures towards her, as a consequence of her known hearing difficulties and his desire to limit her questioning.
Before he received his second caution in September, after an effort to drum up support for himself in the mayoral election, he told Cr Justine Brooks in a phone call fellow Cr Chris Barraclough did not respect women.
A complaint was lodged in November 2019, but was not heard by the determination panel until September 2020 due to COVID-19.
Although Cr Kieser denied in the determination that he said those words, it found the precise words used could not be proved, but accepted that Cr Brooks had taken them to mean the other candidates were "not polished and did not respect women".
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