Cr Peter Hulin to lodge complaint about Warrnambool City councillor meeting

He will ask council chief executive officer Peter Schneider and Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek to investigate the appropriateness of the meeting which was held on Monday.

He said the motivation of the meeting that included himself, Crs Sue Cassidy, Mike Neoh, Kylie Gaston and Rob Anderson, and a governance officer was "devious".

He said the meeting was held after he had publicly raised concerns about organisational issues within the council in the wake of inappropriate spending by an officer on a ratepayer-funded credit card.

He says Cr Cassidy, who was acting as mayor in the absence of Tony Herbert who was at a conference in Canberra, called a councillor-only meeting this week.

After that meeting Cr Mike Neoh told The Standard all present councillors said they had not known of any wrongdoings within the council in the past.

"The only conclusion I can come to after this devious meeting was that it was held to try and get me to make out as though I didn't have a problem with the running of council over the last 10 years, which is absurd," he said.

Cr Cassidy said the meeting wasn't about Cr Hulin.

She said it was to have a discussion with three former mayors and the councillors about any knowledge they may have had about previous organisational issues.

"As councillors we are not privy to all information," she said. "They all said they knew nothing. We had former mayors in the room and we asked everyone what they might have known. We don't want anymore surprises. It wasn't directed at Peter. Having the governance officer there was to check that everything was above board. I didn't have a problem with it. She was the scribe. We employ the CEO so we don't need his permission to have the meeting."

Cr Hulin said he had spoken to the local government minister previously regarding the management of the council in the past.

Cr David Owen was not at the meeting.

"This meeting that was called by Cr Cassidy for a councillor-only discussion afterwards I found to be irregular at best for a caretaker mayor to be calling it and I was extremely disturbed to find the governance officer to be in attendance and taking copious amounts of notes on what was discussed," Cr Hulin said.

"I found it quite bizarre and I was quite alarmed.

"I said to the councillors at the start if you think I will be grilled by you, you have another thing coming, I will be walking out. I certainly wasn't going to be discussing issues with them. I am waiting for an independent auditor to be appointed to go through and see if there are any irregularities."

Mr Schneider is currently conducting his own review into the organisation, but Cr Hulin said that should not stop the minister from "stepping in and having someone independent look at it".

"It has to happen," he said.

"As good as I think Mr Schneider is, and I think he's a good bloke, I can't see how he can do this substantial investigation and manage the city at the same time."

A council spokesman said Mr Schneider was aware that a council briefing was taking place.

"The CEO was unaware of any additional items that councillors had chosen to discuss at the end of the listed agenda items," he said.

"As to whether it is something that will be taken into account in the credit card review will depend on the nature of the discussion that was had."

Cr Hulin questioned why a council officer was present at the meeting.

"I want to know who gave the governance officer the authorisation to attend the meeting and take notes?" he asked.

"It seems everybody knew what the subject was going to be at the councillor-only discussion apart from me.

"I said absolutely I don't know what is going to come out in the future but I also said there are a number of disgruntled council staff who are feeling they can now come out and put things forward. What they are, I have no idea."