Cr Michael Separovich reimbursement of expenses application

The City of Cockburn's response to PerthNow Cockburn on 16 December about Cr Michael Separovich's application for Reimbursement of Expenses

Question: What is the City’s response to these comments and proposed actions by Cr Separovich?
Answer: The City has no delegated authority to pay these legal costs. As such, the Council must determine whether the costs will be reimbursed to Councillor Separovich.

Question: Will the City take some of these proposed actions into account to avoid spending more on legal fees?
Answer: The proposed actions are not clear.
Under s. 5.107 of the Local Government Act 1995, the designated Complaints Officer, the Executive Governance and Strategy is required to report any complaint outlining an Elected Member has committed a minor breach, to the member of the primary standards panel.

Question: When will the council reconsider the item about reimbursing Cr Separovich with $605, following the deferral last week?
Answer: Once the City has the information regarding the decision made by SAT, the item will be re-presented to Council for a determination.

Question: The governance and strategy executive said last week that the City spent $30,000 on legal fees to deal with these complaints. Can the City confirm this figure?
Answer: The City has paid $31,531.59 to the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries for costs associated with Standards Panel hearings during 2020/21 all of which pertain to Councillor Separovich.

Question: What were some of the reasons why the City included the complaints in the draft annual report and has this been done in previous years?
Answer: Under s. 5.53 of the Local Government Act 1995, one of the requirements is for the annual report to contain the following information:
(hb) details of entries made under section 5.121 during the financial year in the register of complaints, including —
(i) the number of complaints recorded in the register of complaints; and
(ii) how the recorded complaints were dealt with; and
(iii) any other details that the regulations may require