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“It’s time to draw a line in the sand”: CEO and deputy mayor say abuse of council staff must stop
September 11, 2023
By Peter Holmes
Orange City Council (OCC) staff have been abused at worksites, online and at the service counter on Byng Street, and CEO David Waddell has had enough.
“Our staff are very patient and thick-skinned, but it’s time to draw a line in the sand and push back against a problem that seems to be getting worse,” Waddell said. “Our staff are mothers, fathers and neighbours who live here in Orange too.
“Most of my staff live in Orange, grew up here and love this city. I assume that the people who are abusive wouldn’t treat their mother or brother this way, but they feel it’s okay to say these things to council staff.”
Orange City Council said it had introduced house rules to cover its social media channels “in a bid to improve the quality of local debate and protect staff”.
“The new rules mean posts that breach the rules will be removed, and continued breaches can lead to individuals being blocked,” OCC said.
“We want council’s Facebook page to be a good place for locals to have their say about council decisions, but currently people who post there can’t be sure they won’t be attacked if they stand out from the mob,” Mr Waddell said.
“This new approach is about being polite. Surely that can’t be too hard. If you want to make a point on a project you can always come to a meeting and address the council.”
The Orange News Examiner spoke to Waddell on Monday, and he said he would be discussing with staff today whether council should have an even less forgiving attitude to people who make comments that insult, belittle, harass, defame, abuse or accuse council staff or councillors on social media.
Up to now council has leant towards letting people have their say and then removing certain comments, but not blocking the people posting them. That could change.
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Orange deputy mayor Gerald Power said staff who work on the council’s social media channels “are dealing with the actions of abusive trolls most days. The actions of a few keyboard warriors can make our Facebook pages unsafe places for all residents to have their say”.
Council said the house rules aim to make “our social media channels a safe place where members of our community can engage in debate and are free to make constructive comments, questions and suggestions”.
“I was disappointed to learn that from time to time our staff and councillors have been abused by angry people,” Power said.
“It’s not appropriate to go into the details, but this has happened as staff worked at the council’s customer service counter and passing drivers have abused our road crews on work sites.”
Waddell said that “the vast majority of our local community members treat council
employees with respect and courtesy, but when abuse does happen it can be damaging and should be called out”.
He said he had “a responsibility to provide a safe workplace to all council staff”.
Waddell said OCC and councillors were not above criticism but there were easy ways to raise issues with council “respectfully and politely”.
OCC has launched a series of videos targeting abuse and calling for better behaviour across the city and online.
The videos respond to recent incidents when staff were "subjected to spiteful and racist abuse as they undertook work around the city".
“It’s not okay, and I hope this campaign can start to turn attitudes around,” said Waddell.
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