Councillor quits Friday, now leaked report reveals shock findings
A report leaked to InDaily shows a controversial councillor who resigned last week over Adelaide City Council’s “four years of failure” faced suspension.
Controversial councillor Henry Davis who announced his sudden resignation last week was facing a three-month suspension and public reprimand after a year-long review into his behaviour, InDaily can reveal.
Davis resigned from his seat on the Adelaide City Council on Friday, and vowed to take on rival Jane Lomax-Smith for Lord Mayor at the upcoming election.
But the leaked 38-page report from the state’s independent Behavioural Standards Panel found he breached standards on three counts relating to his filming or photographing of council colleagues.
Davis launched his Mayoral campaign on Friday at a press conference attended by InDaily, the Advertiser and conservative political group Turning Point state coordinator George Mamalis, who Davis said attended in his capacity as a friend helping him film.
Davis said Turning Point was not involved in his Mayoral bid campaign, saying he is running as an independent.
The leaked report showed that at the time of his resignation announcement, Davis was subject to an investigation after he filmed and shared footage of three of his council colleagues at the Treasury 1860 bar in March 2025.
The report revealed that at a May 26 meeting, the panel found Davis “committed serious misbehaviour on three occasions” and ordered he be suspended from his role as an Adelaide City Councillor for three months and issue a public apology.
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The report into allegations against Davis was circulated confidentially earlier this month ahead of a public release. It had not been released at the time of publication.
When asked about the allegations, Davis denied wrongdoing. He said he was subject to “thousands” of complaints during his time on the council: “I breathe wrong, I look at someone…there will be a complaint about me”.
In a press release today, Davis claimed the report was “absurd”.
“Jane Lomax-Smith referred me to the Behavioural Standards Panel after I exposed elected councillors sitting in a bar while a Council meeting collapsed, and the Panel has now suspended me for three months for taking a photo in a public place and asking questions about the circumstances,” he said.
Davis has a colourful history on the Adelaide City Council.
He has been removed from seven council meetings this term, and faced investigations from the Ombudsman for alleged misconduct, and from within the council over a 2024 social media video targeting his colleagues.
Davis also shared a video to social media last year that he claimed was “satire” where he dressed up as Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith and pretended to be Lomax-Smith while visiting Adelaide Town Hall and Hutt Street.
That video also included a suggestion to visit the social media site of Turning Point’s Mamalis.
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The new report details three alleged breaches of section 75G of the Local Government Act, including an incident when Davis allegedly filmed and posted to social media footage of his colleagues at bar Treasury 1860 on March 25, 2025.
The panel found Davis “failed to take reasonable care” to not impact the health and safety of his colleagues with the post, which councillors described as “belittling”, “misrepresenting” and an “unjustified public attack”.
“Davis is adamant that he has not breached his health and safety duties under the Act and has defended his actions by stating he was fulfilling his obligations as an elected member,” the report said.
“The panel is of the view that Cr Davis is mistaken.”
Asked by InDaily on the day of his resignation if Davis had been contacted by the panel, he said: “anything to do with the behavioural standards panel would be highly confidential”.
Davis told InDaily no specific complaint or incident led to his decision to resign, but that council opposition was a factor.
“Honestly, it kind of does, because the complaints that I get and that I’m dealing with, they spend a fortune on, it’s intentional, and it’s intimidating,” he said.
The three allegations of “serious misbehaviour” detailed in the report included Davis filming or photographing three other councillors without their consent, posting the footage to Instagram on March 25, 2025, and an email sent by Davis to the involved councillors on April 9.
Davis posted footage of the other councillors to Instagram on March 25 last year, with a caption claiming, “rather than turn up to work, Cr Snape is drinking next door with Cr Noon and the Deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide”.
It came after Davis called a special council meeting on March 25 which did not go ahead because not enough councillors attended, collapsing quorum.
Davis said at his Lord Mayor announcement on Friday that complaints against him were “not related to my behaviour; it’s related to me criticising the council’s direction”.
“I’ve tried to build working relationships with my colleagues as best I can, but I can tell you that they’re not interested in that,” Davis said.
The Panel – an independent body that investigates escalated complaints in the local government sector – declined to comment on questions from InDaily regarding the report for confidentiality reasons.
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