Kiama councillor Karen Renkema-Lang has been formally censured by fellow councillors over a radio interview on June 21.
She also avoided a second censure motion related to a newsletter released that same month.
It makes her the second Kiama councillor to be formally censured this year for breaches of the code of conduct.
The censure motion was held in a confidential session of Tuesday night's council meeting.
They related to an ABC Illawarra radio interview where Cr Renkema-Lang spoke of her opposition to the reclassification of the land occupied by Blue Haven Bonaira - which the council had voted to sell.
The interview went for 10 minutes, and during the interview, she made reference to reports on the subject given to councillors.
"The information that was provided was either, in some cases, incomplete or ambiguous, or even misleading," Cr Renkema-Lang said in the radio interview.
Following the confidential session Kiama CEO Jane Stroud read out the decision made by the councillors.
"[Council] officially and formally censure Cr Karen Renkema-Lang for breaching section 440g [of the Local Government Act] by breaching the following clauses of the code of conduct following on from a radio interview on 21 June 2023 where the ... breaches were found to be substantiated by the independent investigator," Ms Stroud said.
"Clause 3.1a conducting herself in a manner likely to bring other council officials into disrepute [and] Clause 3.1c conducting herself in a manner that was improper or unethical."
She was also censured for a breach of the code of conduct.
Councillors also voted to take no further action "in relation to comments published in a June 2023 newsletter published by or on behalf of Cr Renkema-Lang as the councillor removed the newsletter and therefore the complaint in respect to that matter was withdrawn".
Councillors also voted to upgrade the council's social media policy to include all forms of media and continue the development of a draft media policy that identifies who can speak on behalf of the council.
At the meeting on Tuesday night, Cr Renkema-Lang also requested a report on code of conduct complaints related to Blue Haven Bonaira over the last two years.
Cr Renkema-Lang posted a response to the council decision on the Kiama Bugle website, where she incorrectly referred to being censured as being "censored".
"Censored but not silenced," her statement said and then posted a link to the radio interview.
"Do you think this [interview] warranted spending thousands of $$ of Kiama Council's scarce funds?
"Don't councillors have an obligation to be transparent about what has informed their individual views and decisions and on why we vote a particular way?
"Apparently not."
In July this year Kiama Cr Mark Croxford was censured for a code of conduct breach over "conduct that amounts to engaging in intimidation".
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
