A Hobart City councillor has been cautioned for bringing the council into disrepute after calling the deputy lord mayor an “upstart” during a heated meeting last year that had to be paused.
Marti Zucco was found to have breached the council’s code of conduct over his behaviour at the September 16 meeting, which descended into chaos during a debate on committee appointments.
Zucco made the “upstart” remark to Zelinda Sherlock after she expressed disappointment that only four councillors had put their names forward for the revamped planning authority.
She said it was ‘telling’ and “disappointing” that others had not nominated.
As reported by Pulse at the time, multiple councillors took issue with Sherlock’s comments.
Will Coats labelled her remarks “offensive”, while John Kelly said he felt “humiliated, publicly vilified and shamed”.
When Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds asked Zucco to withdraw his comment, which came before the others, he refused multiple times and asked to be reported.
A week later, fellow councillor Ryan Posselt lodged a formal complaint, claiming Zucco’s actions had made the council look dysfunctional and sparked media attention that damaged its reputation.
After reviewing video footage of the meeting, a Code of Conduct Panel found Zucco was “clearly upset and angered by the comments”.
“Zucco however, is a councillor of many years’ experience and should have been well aware of the need to accept the rulings of the Lord Mayor … in a temperate manner however unpalatable those rulings may have been and regardless of the provocation,” the panel said.
The disruption also led the Acting Director of Local Government to write to the council in October, suggesting some councillors should have been ejected from the meeting by the Lord Mayor.
The panel imposed a caution, taking into account that other councillors were also involved in creating the heated circumstances.
