Queensland councillors say the complaints system is being used to target them as a recent parliamentary report highlights concerns it is "being used improperly for politically motivated purposes".
When it was set up in 2018, the Office of the Independent Assessor (OIA) expected to receive 160 complaints relating to councillor conduct a year, but on average handles 1,100 complaints annually.
So far this financial year there has been a more than 50 per cent rise in the number of complaints, the body said.
Redland City Councillor Adelia Berridge said she received 23 conduct complaints through the OIA since calling for Mayor Karen Williams to resign after she was charged with drink driving.
The council's public register shows it has ruled on 32 complaints about councillor conduct since July 1.
"Every time I speak up, every time I upset somebody in council, I get a complaint," Ms Berridge said.
Ms Williams admitted to having "several glasses" of wine after handing down the council budget in June this year before getting behind the wheel of her council-owned Lexus.
Ms Williams crashed into a tree. Her blood alcohol concentration was more than three times the legal limit.
She was disqualified from driving for six months and had no conviction recorded.
In the wake of the incident, Ms Berridge was outspoken and publicly said Ms Williams' position was untenable.
"I also said at the time that I had made complaints about the drinking in the councillor work area amongst councillors," Ms Berridge said.
"From that day, in the following six to eight weeks I received 23 complaints from the Office of the Independent Assessor.
"These OIA complaints, the volume and the speed they come through — how can you do your job that you're elected to do when you're dealing with this?"
Ms Berridge said she believes many of the complaints could only come from people with knowledge of council proceedings.
"Complaints have been about what I've said in a council meeting, what I've said in a council workshop, emails between councillors, emails to an officer … that information has to be within the council. It cannot be from outside the council."
One complaint involves Ms Berridge not removing a house in Thornside from her register of interest after she had sold the property.
Others involve Ms Berridge having contact with the media.
Ms Williams said she was not connected to the complaints.
"I have not made any complaints against Cr Berridge. Nor have I ever asked anyone to lodge complaints against any councillor," she said.
"I believe the OIA has been politically weaponised against many councillors across the entire state, to which many councillors including myself have been targets."
Ms Williams said she was aware of 14 complaints made against her since July 1.
In a statement the OIA said "in the last six months, just five councils accounted for 83 per cent of councillor versus councillor complaints".
'Hijacked by political opponents'
A year-long parliamentary inquiry handed down a report last week making 40 recommendations — eight of which related to the OIA, including managing vexatious complainants.
The OIA dismisses complaints it deems vexations but has never prosecuted anyone for vexatious complaints despite the inquiry raising the "politicisation" of the process.
The OIA uses a three-strike system for vexatious complaints, but complaints from the same person cannot be grouped together unless they were on the same topic.
One submission to the inquiry said complaints were being used as a way to "put some public humiliation on [a] councillor, stain their reputation and thus defeat their support in their community".
"The [OIA] has been hijacked by political opponents of sitting councillors. Basically, every complaint that I see going through is a complaint against a sitting councillor and it is politically driven and it is vexatious."
One recommendation of the inquiry was that a "consistent definition of vexatious and frivolous complaints and complainants".
The OIA said it welcomed the inquiry's recommendation for more funding for permanent staff after eight temporary staff proved effective in bringing down the number of outstanding complaints in 2020.
Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Steven Miles said the "efficiency and effectiveness of the councillor conduct complaints system is essential to ensure public confidence in the local government".
"This is an important report. The government will consider each of the committee's recommendations in detail and will table its response in due course," Mr Miles said.
