UPDATE: Thursday, 11:48am
Councillor Andrew Istephan sat without emotion as the first few lines of a Leader front page article were read aloud at the Hurstville Council meeting on Wednesday night.
Cr Vince Badalati tried to move a motion to remove the dentist and former Hurstville deputy mayor from the council.
Cr Istephan was convicted in Downing Centre District Court on October 2 on five counts of assault, occasioning actual bodily harm, over major dental work he carried out on patients under the Commonwealth-funded Chronic Disease Dental Scheme in 2011.
He will return to court for sentencing on October 25.
Cr Badalati referenced the Leader article — Dentist guilty of assault — during the matters of privilege.
‘‘Mr Mayor, I refer to the front page of the Leader dated October 3,’’ he said.
Cr Badalati said his motive was the concern of Hurstville residents.
‘‘Over the past two weeks, I’ve been approached by a lot of residents in the Hurstville ward and their questions to me is: why is this councillor still on the council if he’s been found guilty of five of the 12 charges?’’ he said.
Despite there being no relation of this matter on the agenda, Cr Badalati asked to move a motion as an urgent application.
After mayor Jack Jacovou asked numerous times about its urgency, the motion was refused; Cr Badalati disagreed with the ruling.
Eight Hurstville councillors — Hindi, Istephan, Jacovou, Kastanias, Lui, Sansom, Stevens and Wu — voted against the urgency of application which was carried.
Cr Badalati asked for a division but the motion was lost
END
ANDREW Istephan's position as a Liberal councillor at Hurstville Council was expected to generate heated debate at last night's council meeting following his recent assault convictions.
The former deputy mayor of Hurstville, who is also a dentist, was convicted on five counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over major dental work he carried out on patients under the Commonwealth-funded Chronic Disease Dental Scheme in 2011.
He was found guilty of assaulting elderly nursing home patients by undertaking unnecessary major dental work on them without consent and will return to court for sentencing on October 25.
Cr Vince Badalati (Labor) said yesterday he planned to put forward a motion at last night's meeting requesting that Cr Istephan be removed from the council.
"He shouldn't be there," Cr Badalati said.
"Our code of conduct states that we can't be bringing the council into disrepute."
However, mayor Jack Jacovou said he expected Cr Istephan to continue his duties for the council.
"It would be inappropriate to comment on a matter that's still before the court but he's still a councillor and there's still work to be done," Cr Jacovou said.
A council spokeswoman said that under the Local Government Act 1993, the convictions did not disqualify Cr Istephan from being a councillor.
"Also, as the convictions arise out of work carried out in his private, rather than public or civic capacity, there is no breach of the council's code of conduct," she said.
Cr Istephan was not available for comment.
Did Hurstville Council make the wrong decision?
Should Councillor Andrew Istephan stand down?
