City of Cockburn council has been suspended pending inquiry

13/4/99
The council of the City of Cockburn has been suspended so that an inquiry can be held into whether it should be dismissed.
Commissioners have been appointed to run the city in the interim.
Local Government Minister Paul Omodei announced the suspension this afternoon and said that as a consequence of the council being suspended, the elections scheduled for May 1 were cancelled.
He also announced that Julian Francis Donaldson, Jennifer Lee Smithson and Murray Alan Jorgensen had been appointed commissioners, with Mr Donaldson as chairman.
Mr Omodei said he had made the decision to suspend the council after studying the report of a Department of Local Government inquiry into the city in the light of previous investigations and council decisions earlier this year, and after receiving advice from the Crown Solicitor's Office.
He had formed the view that it was inappropriate for the council to continue to act as the governing body of the City of Cockburn.
The terms of reference for the further inquiry and its personnel would be announced in the near future.
The report of the inquiry, which played a major role in his decision to suspend the council, would be tabled in Parliament next week.
It had covered a wide range of issues, including the handling of town planning matters which had been the subject of previous concern and a very strong comment by the Ombudsman.
Apart from the cancellation of the May 1 elections, all other services delivered by the City of Cockburn would continue as usual, but under the control of the commissioners.
Details of the commissioners appointed to run the City of Cockburn are:

• Mr Julian Donaldson, an advertising executive and formerly the Mayor of the Town of Cottesloe for three years and a councillor for seven;

• Ms Jenny Smithson, Manager of Planning and Associate Director BSD Consultants Pty Ltd, and a Commissioner of the Shire of Albany until its amalgamation with the Town of Albany in July last year; and -

• Mr Murray Jorgensen, currently a management and business consultant after a 25-year career in local government, including 10 years to 1998 as CEO of the Town of Albany.