Kempsey Shire Council resolves code of conduct complaint

Published on 28 June 2022

The 2016-2021 Council

Kempsey Shire Council has voted to formally censure Councillor Leo Hauville, following investigation into a code of conduct complaint.

An initial preliminary assessment of the complaint was conducted, followed by a formal investigation carried out by an independent external conduct reviewer, who produced a Final Investigation Report.

The report contained four key findings relating to conduct from the previous term of Council.

While the majority of the current Councillors were not in office at the time of the incidents identified in the findings, their role was not to revisit the findings.

Rather Councillors considering this matter had the task of reviewing the Final Investigation Report and determine the appropriate sanction under the circumstances.

The adopted findings of the Code of Conduct Investigation are published in the minutes of the 28 June 2022 meeting. This matter does not impact the operations of Council, the delivery of services or the engagement of staff and as such no further comment will be made.