'A heavy burden': Kiama council to pay Cr Renkama-Lang court costs

That figure could be more than $100,000, which would be on top of the hundreds of thousands of dollars the council has spent on the legal matter as of March this year - as listed in recent council business papers.

A statement from council noted the cost order would be "a heavy burden" but added, rather than Supreme Court proceedings, other cost-free options were available to be pursued by Cr Renkema-Lang.

At a November 2023 meeting, councillors voted to censure Cr Renkema-Lang over a breach of the code of conduct, following a complaint about her comments in a radio interview.

In that interview, she claimed information provided on the land reclassification of Blue Haven Bonaira was "in some cases, incomplete or ambiguous, or even misleading".

In February, Cr Renkema-Lang started Supreme Court proceedings over the matter.

According to the Supreme Court's consent orders, it found the censure motion was based on a report from an outside investigator - Michael Symons of Anti-Corruption Consultants Australia - was "affected by a reasonable apprehension of bias"

The report had redacted sections that mention a complaint made by Cr Renkama-Lang against Mayor Neil Reilly.

"Those matters require procedural fairness and were not made in accordance with council policy on making complaints," the investigation report stated to explain the redacted sections.

"To repeat this information in this report, would therefore further bias any procedural fairness, noting however that the CEO had read the report in full at the time of its submission and has not been advised on any formal complaint at the point of preparing the report."

The redacted report was presented to the councillors and used as a basis for the decision to censure.

Though the court considered the redactions "well-intentioned" it found the councillors voting on the censure motion were therefore "unable to form their own judgement about the plaintiff's argument that the investigation report was affected by a reasonable apprehension of bias".

The council agreed that, because the decision was based a report the court ruled invalid, it had the effect of making their decision based on that report also invalid.

However, it does not mean there was no breach of the code of conduct and the Mercury understands the original complainant could lodge a fresh complaint and start a new censure investigation.

In a statement Cr Renkema-Lang said she was "deeply disappointed that Kiama Council has vested so much time and scarce resources into investigating, and then defending the actions" that led to the censure motion.

She added that it was "incomprehensible" that time and money was spent "given council's financial position and the importance of elected councillors being able to express their opinion on council issues".

A statement from the council confirmed it has been ordered to pay all costs in the court matter.

"This is a heavy burden on the ratepayers of our municipality, especially considering other cost-free options - such as lodgement of a rescission motion or requesting to appeal the censure by seeking a review," the statement read.

The council statement said the code of conduct complaint against Cr Renkema-Lang was processed "in line with the NSW Government's model procedure and Kiama Council's endorsed Procedure for the Administration of the Code of Conduct".

"Additionally, council sought and acted upon the advice of the NSW Office of Local Government on several occasions during the processing of the complaint, specifically in relation to redactions, and the appointment of the independent investigator," the statement read.

"Council notes the substantial costs associated with this litigation, in which council was the defendant (and therefore obliged to participate).

"As reported in Kiama Council's May Council meeting, legal costs (as at March 30, 2024) have already exceeded $400,000, and the total expenditure (from March to May) - likely to be substantially more - will be detailed in the July 2024 Council Meeting as invoices are finalised."