A Wagga councillor has accused a colleague of ongoing harassment in the aftermath of a heated council meeting on Monday night.
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Councillor Vanessa Keenan released a statement on her public Facebook page on Tuesday morning raising concerns about fellow councillor Paul Funnell's allegedly "aggressive" behaviour.
In the 394-word statement, Cr Keenan alleges that Cr Funnell sent an inappropriate text message about her several years ago that she interpreted as being threatening.
Cr Funnell has denied the allegations and accused Cr Keenan of using a "smear campaign" to harass him in return.
He claimed Cr Keenan's statement was "typical" of Labor because it was trying to harm his reputation rather than "dealing with the issues at hand".
Cr Keenan and Councillor Dan Hayes both represent Labor on Wagga City Council, while the other seven councillors have no official party affiliation relating to their local government positions.
In his councillor column in Saturday's edition of the Council News, Cr Funnell made a number of claims about Cr Keenan, including that she lived in Tumbarumba and that until April 26 she had not attended a council meeting in person for more than a year.
Appearing at Monday night's meeting via video link, Cr Keenan attempted to read out a statement which she said explained why she had been reluctant to attend council meetings in person.
However, general manager Peter Thompson advised mayor Greg Conkey that the section of the meeting was not the right time for such a statement and that allowing it to be read would breach the code of meeting practice.
Speaking on Tuesday, Cr Conkey said he was disappointed by the events of Monday evening "but that's democracy and freedom of speech".
He said the questions/business with notice section of meetings was not the avenue for councillors to make statements.
Cr Conkey told Cr Keenan this during the meeting on Monday night.
"[The] ruling is that the code of meeting practice doesn't allow for statements like that," he said.
"I would suggest that you might like to put in a notice of motion or some other form to address this situation."
Two weeks ago, most councillors were in the same chamber wearing "We Do Respect" T-shirts to promote council's good behaviour campaign.
It comes after councillor Tim Koschel said he felt "harassed" into stepping down from his council committee positions by Crs Keenan and Hayes, who publicly criticised his low attendance rates in The Daily Advertiser.