Kingston council CEO took months to stand down charged councillor

A councillor facing criminal charges was allowed to remain in office on a south-east Melbourne council for almost three months last year, despite state laws requiring her to be stood down.

Documents obtained by The Age under freedom-of-information laws this week reveal that Kingston City Council CEO Peter Bean was explicitly warned the council may have been in breach of the Local Government Act for failing to suspend councillor Jane Agirtan sooner.

Agirtan was charged with breaching a personal safety intervention order on January 1, 2025, according to the official charge sheet. Under the Local Government Act, any councillor charged with an offence punishable by at least two years’ imprisonment is stood down until the matter is resolved, a condition which the charge against Agirtan met.

The charge stemmed from a social media dispute during the 2024 elections. After an anonymous Reddit user labelled Agirtan a “bully, transphobe, [and] anti-vaxxer”, Agirtan identified the user as a Melbourne lawyer and shared their personal details with her 4000 Facebook followers. The lawyer was granted a personal safety intervention order, which Agirtan was charged with breaching in January after failing to remove the post within 24 hours.

Agirtan eventually avoided a conviction in June at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court. She was instead ordered to make a $2000 donation to the Royal Children’s Hospital. She was reinstated with backpay of between $10,000 and $15,000 for the three months she was suspended.

Despite Agirtan’s publicised court appearance on February 25, she was only stood down on April 9. Internal emails and media responses by the council suggest the administration was aware of the case well before the suspension, with Bean asking the mayor and staff on April 9 to “recall what statement was made in February in relation to these charges”.

The council responded to a journalist in February with their response published about Agirtan’s February 25 court appearance.

On April 9, a councillor wrote to Bean expressing concern that the city may have been in breach of the law since February.

“Kingston Council made a statement in February regarding these charges during our Council meeting,” the email read. “I presume that at that time you made inquiries with Councillor Agirtan regarding whether or not she should stand down.”

The delay meant Agirtan continued to be paid, exercised councillor powers and participated in at least 24 votes during three council meetings over February and March before she was stood down.

In the March meeting, she moved or seconded eight separate items, playing a lead role in the adoption of planning permits. Her participation was decisive in several narrow votes, including a 6-5 majority to defer a masterplan for the Mordialloc Community Centre.

Bean rejected any suggestion the council acted improperly, stating it took “all required steps once duly informed”. He said “public reporting, speculation or general awareness” was not enough to trigger a suspension and that the legal obligation to notify the organisation rested solely with Agirtan.

Agirtan formally told the CEO about the charges on April 8.

A fellow councillor, who spoke to The Age on the condition of anonymity, said the response did not pass muster and described the delay as “months of inaction despite clear warning and knowledge” on behalf of the CEO and mayor.

“I would expect a CEO or even a manager of any organisation, let alone one on the public dime, to be proactive and seek out information, especially when that information relates to the potential criminal offence of an elected official,” they said.

Mayor Georgina Oxley denied any wrongdoing, calling any suggestion of political influence “disgusting and insulting”.

A Victorian government spokesperson confirmed that under the Local Government Act, a councillor who is charged must give written notice to the CEO “immediately on becoming aware of that fact”, but did not say what, if any, repercussions there were for not doing so. It is also unclear what the status is of the votes Agirtan cast while she was charged but not stood down.

Agirtan did not respond to questions from The Age about why she did not inform the council of her charges until three months after they were laid, and whether it was appropriate she had been paid as a councillor and voted on matters during that time.

The councillor has previously launched defamation action in the Supreme Court against feminist commentator Clementine Ford, after Ford allegedly called her a “racist transphobic” who should be “forcibly removed from society in a padded van”. That matter has now been resolved.

Local Government Minister Nick Staikos, who extended the tenure of municipal monitors at Kingston in December until the end of June, said in a letter seen by The Age that monitors had reported “a range of behavioural, cultural and governance deficiencies”.

The ongoing presence of the monitors has become a political flashpoint. As well as being local government minister, Staikos is MP for Bentleigh, which sits within the City of Kingston. Agirtan and fellow councillor Caroline White have suggested on social media that they will run in the state election in November.

Coalition local government spokeswoman Bev McArthur attacked the extension at the time, saying there were “no genuine governance failures” and that ratepayers were being forced to “pick up the tab” for monitor fees totaling thousands of dollars a day.

A government spokesperson said it had confidence in the monitors to improve governance at Kingston.

“Residents of the City of Kingston expect their council to uphold the highest standards of governance, and for councillors to act professionally and responsibly, in a way that earns and maintains the trust and confidence placed in them by the community.”

Kingston’s freedom-of-information unit initially refused to release to The Age all nine documents related to the Argitan matter. Following a review, the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner determined two documents should be released in part, nine months after the initial request.

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