GAWLER councillor Ian Tooley has alleged Gawler mayor Karen Redman helped alter minutes from an April council meeting to incorrectly show he refused to deliver an apology for breaching six clauses of the local government Code of Conduct early last year.
The explosive claim was made by the former deputy mayor
during a tense exchange with Ms Redman at last month’s May 28 ordinary council meeting, where he was asked nine times to deliver his apology – as per a recommendation made by council in November – but refused.
Cr Tooley was meant to apologise for breaching the Code of Conduct at two Infrastructure and Environmental Services meetings in early 2018, where it was alleged he called then Cr Adrian Shackley “a f…ing low life”, yelled “I’m not f…ing
talking to you” to Cr Paul Koch, and “spoke disparagingly” towards then chair Cr Kevin Fischer.
Cr Tooley strongly denied using the “f-word”, but did admit to calling Cr Shackley a “low life” and banging his fist on the table in frustration.
At the April council meeting six weeks ago, Cr Tooley attempted to deliver a personal statement as part of his apology – just as Ms Redman had done when apologising for her own Code of Conduct breach late last year – but was not permitted to do so by the mayor.
Cr Tooley then sought leave of the meeting to deliver his statement, but was denied from doing so by elected members, at which point he argued he was being “denied natural justice”.

“I will not be making an apology because I have not done anything wrong; I totally disagree with the recommendation and I totally disagree with the findings,” he said.
“If I was to apologise, I’m admitting in that apology that I used the ‘f-word’ in a meeting.
“Mayor, it was alleged that when I was sitting next to you, next to (chief executive Henry Inat), and next to Kevin that I
yelled ‘I’m not f…ing talking to you’ (to Cr Koch).
“Now, if that did happen both you, the CEO and Kevin were in dereliction of your duties and I had every grounds to be thrown out of the meeting, but that did not happen.
“It was a lie, and I cannot apologise for something I did not do.”
Cr Tooley was given another opportunity to apologise at last month’s May ordinary meeting, but again refused, arguing the minutes from the April meeting were an inaccurate recount of the exchange between him and Ms Redman.
“In those minutes it says clearly that I refused to apologise; that was not the case, but now that becomes the record,” he said.
“I never refused – you (Ms Redman) interjected, you would not let me finish.
“You can have a grin on your face if you like, you might find this amusing, but I find it highly offensive and highly upsetting.
“You have interfered with the minute taker and got the minute taker to write a statement that was incorrect.”
Following almost 30 minutes of debate across both April and May meetings, Cr Tooley still did not deliver an apology.