Ratepayers slugged six-figure sum for councillor bad behaviour
An annual report reveals hefty legal costs in dealing with Adelaide City councillor behaviour nearly doubled in the past 12 months.
Adelaide City councillors cost ratepayers more than $150,000 in “elected member behaviour” legal fees in the past financial year, an increase of almost $70,000 from the previous 12 months.
The City of Adelaide annual report revealed a total of $154,815.79 in legal fees had been spent in dealing with potential breaches of behavioural standards and rules outlined in the Local Government Act. It marked a 78 per cent rise in fees from last financial year where the total cost was $86,759.
“To support transparency and accountability, council has disclosed the total expenditure associated with elected member behaviour matters for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years,” the annual report said.
“[This] provides a more comprehensive view of costs incurred in managing conduct-related matters, including costs associated with all behavioural complaints received during the reporting period, not only those that resulted in a referral or findings of a contravention.”
Of the total, $77,998 was spent dealing with complaints alleging a breach of the Local Government Act’s Member Behaviour rules that elected councillors must abide by.
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Breaches can result in council issuing a censure, require the councillor to issue a public apology or, if council members repeatedly breach the standards, they may be referred to the Behavioural Standards Panel to handle unresolved behavioural complaints.
Earlier this year, former councillor and Lord Mayor candidate Henry Davis was facing a three-month suspension and public reprimand after a review from the state’s independent Behavioural Standards Panel.
The report revealed 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, and that he “committed serious misbehaviour on three occasions”.
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith told InDaily that council was “unable to discuss specific behavioural matters”.
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“The requirement for councils to be transparent means that, at the conclusion of a process relating to a behavioural complaint, it comes before Council for appropriate determination. Our agendas and minutes are on the public record,” Lomax-Smith said.
Additionally, a further $31,000 was spent on complaints alleging breaches of health and safety duties outlined in the act.
According to the Local Government Act, a councillor “must take reasonable care that the member’s acts or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of other members of council or employees of the council”.
The complaints to the City of Adelaide resulted in four referrals to the Behavioural Standards Panel for investigation, however, no breaches of health and safety duties were found.
The annual report found the overall legal costs incurred by the City of Adelaide between July 2025 to June 2026 rose to $1.744 million, compared to $1.449 million in the previous financial year.
Costs included commercial leasing and property development activities, management of employee relations requirements, community member queries, intellectual property matters, and local government election matters.
It follows recent findings from Ombudsman SA that the City of Adelaide accounted for 15 per cent of all complaints against local government, significantly higher than the next council, the City of Onkaparinga at 7.3 per cent.
The main issues raised were in relation to parking infringements and issues with resolving complaints.
“As the City of Adelaide is also one of the larger councils and receives significant traffic into the CBD, this is not unexpected,” the Ombudsman report said.
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