The Lismore City Council has a 'rat in the house' to quote Councillor Nancy Casson and according to Councillor Neil Marks' 'Notice of Motion' for tomorrow nights Lismore City Council meeting, he wants to find out who it is and stop the leaking of confidential council documents to various public persons and the media.

The Lismore App itself has received a leaked confidential document on April 21 this year. The document was from the General Manager Shelley Oldham to all councillors which outlined councils precarious financial position this year.

Cnr Marks said "This motion is not to withhold information that may be pertinent to the community in regards to illegal doings. It is more about protecting the information that needs to be given to councillors that is delicate".

When asked if the motion will get support from other councillors, Cnr Marks said "I have no idea, I haven't canvassed anybody. It's up to them if they want to work in a trustful environment".

A call to to other councillors gives the impression that this will be a sizeable debate at tomorrow nights council meeting.

Cnr Gianpiero Battista said "I support the first part of the motion but we have a cashflow budget deficit of $287,000 so the cost is uncalled for. We shouldn't be spending any money on where the leak is coming from", he said.

To clarify Cnr Bautista's statement, the motion has three parts;

1. Condemns the leaking of confidential information.
2. Councils asks the General Manager (GM) to conduct a forensic workplace investigation.
3. If a person is found guilty of leaking information or documents the GM is instructed to undertake all relevant action.

Cnr Elly Bird said "It’s important for Council to be able to consider some items and issues confidentially. This is particularly important in matters that are ‘commercial in confidence’. Sometimes we consider contracts and financial matters that should not be in the public domain in order to protect the interests of the companies that are engaging with Council, but also it’s important that we protect Council and ratepayers interests as well."

"Councillors need to be able to have frank discussions with staff and with each other on a whole range of issues. It’s not appropriate for some of these communications to find their way into the public domain. For example we may be told about a matter that relates to an individual staff member. This should never be made public because as employers we have a duty of care to protect the privacy of our employees.”

"I we had money I would love to find the rat in the house", said Cnr Nancy Casson. "This a two edged sword", She added, "if you vote against the motion then you are tarred with the guilty brush".

Cnr Darlene Cook said she is distressed by the amount of leaks to media and social media that are occurring.

"We have had correspondence from the GM that has found its way on social media within twenty minutes", Cnr Cook went on. "this behaviour is destroying trust between councillors and staff".

When asked the question about funding for the motion, Cnr Cook replied "the Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee provide an internal auditor for four to five audits per year, this is allocated in the budget so it is only a matter of identifying an audit we can swap with or replace".

Cnr Marks confirmed this was the case during his research of putting the motion together.

It appears there is a fine line between what is public interest and what should be kept confidential until it is ready for publication. For councillors to receive all the relevant information to make decisions in the best interests of the community there needs to be trust that councillors and staff will all adhere to the requests for confidentiality.

Obviously that is not the case right now.

You can view and hear the next Lismore City Council meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6pm from the council website (https://www.lismore.nsw.gov.au/cp_themes/default/page.asp?p=DOC-DVR-70-64-45).