Capel Shire president Michael Southwell denies threatening female staffer after panel finds him guilty

A South West shire president is vehemently denying he was abusive and threatening towards a local government staffer — even after he appeared to apologise for the incident in a post to the organisation’s social media page. The Capel Shire yesterday posted an apology purporting to be from president Michael Southwell, stating a complaint had been made against him where he had approached a shire employee in an “abusive and threatening manner.” It comes during Cr Southwell’s campaign for the City of Bunbury Mayor, after he announced earlier this year he would not re-contest his top position on Capel council. Documents obtained by the South Western Times state a female shire worker claims she was with her daughter at a supermarket in Dalyellup in April when Cr Southwell came within 50cm to 30cm of her face and asked: “Do you have something to say to me?” When the woman said she did not, she said the shire leader told her he did not think so before moving away. The Local Government Standards Panel found Cr Southwell had been in breach of the code of conduct and said the president had to publicly apologise. “I accept that I should not have approached the relevant Shire employee,” the post to the Capel Shire Facebook page states. “I now apologise to the Shire employee concerned, my fellow councillors and the public.” But Cr Southwell told the South Western Times he did not issue the apology, was not involved in the incident at all and it had been a case of mistaken identity. “I have never behaved in any aggressive or threatening manner to any staff member at the Capel shire, ever,” he said. “It appears to me to be a mistake of mistaken identity... it wasn’t me, I wasn’t there.” Then-chief executive officer Robert Stewart filed the complaint against Cr Southwell to the Standards Panel on behalf of the employee. As part of the outcome of the LGSP trial, Cr Southwell was expected to either make a public apology during last week’s shire meeting or the chief executive would have 28 days to post it on Facebook. Capel Shire chief executive Gordon MacMile had published the post yesterday. Cr Southwell said he was “disappointed” Mr MacMile chose to publish the apology before his campaign for Bunbury Mayor had ended next Saturday. “I’m disappointed that has happened, it’s poor, and I maintain my innocence,” he told the South Western Times. “He had up until October 26, publishing it now, obviously that is going to damage me.” Mr MacMile said he had been required to post the apology to Facebook as Cr Southwell had not delivered it at a prior council meeting. He said publishing the apology was a “straightforward matter” and had been “completed in a reasonable time period.” Cr Southwell announced earlier this year he would step down as president after claiming to have received relentless online abuse. He is one of 10 vying for Bunbury Mayor, with the outcome expected to be announced next Saturday.