Last night our petition was put forward at the City of Whittlesea meeting. 

• To watch the video here; meeting video

Updates from Star Weekly

The vote of no confidence was passed unanimously during Tuesday night’s council meeting by 10 of the city’s councillors – Cr McLindon declared a conflict of interest in the matter – amid mounting public outcry over Cr McLindon’s decision to contest a by-election in the state seat of Werribee just nine weeks after being elected mayor.

The councillors also called on the mayor to resign as they do not have the power to remove him from the role under the Local Government Act.

Two weeks earlier on February 4, the same 10 councillors voted to make an application for Cr McLindon to face internal arbitration over alleged breaches of the Model Councillor Code of Conduct in the media and in social media posts in the lead up to and during his candidacy for the by-election.

A petition calling for the mayor to resign, which was signed by 1153 people, was tabled at Tuesday’s meeting.

https://northern.starweekly.com.au/news/councillors-lose-confidence-in-mayor/

Mayor rules out resigning

https://northern.starweekly.com.au/news/mayor-rules-out-resigning/

Whittlesea mayor Aidan McLindon has refused to bow to calls for him to resign from the office of mayor.

Whittlesea’s 10 other councillors voted unanimously on Tuesday night to call for Cr McLindon’s resignation as mayor.

They also passed a vote of no confidence in Cr McLindon, citing his alleged breaches of the Model Code of Conduct and breaches of public confidence in the position of mayor and the wider council.

A petition calling for Cr McLindon to resign as mayor – signed by 1153 people – was tabled during the council meeting.

On Wednesday morning, Cr McLindon told Star Weekly he would not resign as mayor.

“On what grounds?” he said.

“I will continue to represent the City of Whittlesea without fear or favour.

“The calls for my resignations are baseless.”

Cr McLindon said the allegations levelled against him were “false” and described the vote by councillors as a “political flogging”.

He also questioned the validity of the petition.

“I question the validity of the petition given it is coming from Change.org. There is no validity of the signatures. I would not be surprised if the majority [of signatories] were not Whittlesea residents,” he said.

Watch this space for further updates!