The money would pay for legal advice or representation for councillors who are defending themselves against allegations of misconduct.

Gawler Council has voted to provide up to $1000 reimbursement to elected members each year of the term of government for “advice or representation in the consideration of an allegation of non-compliance against them.”

There are currently 11 elected members, including the mayor, on council, meaning up to $44,000 in such legal fees could be paid each term.

Meanwhile, concern has been raised over the amount of money the council has spent on industrial relations legal costs.

As appeared in the Herald on August 18, Gawler elected member Peter Russell voiced his apprehension about the matter in a ‘letter to the editor’.

In his letter, he claimed there had been “rafts of genuine legal actions by council employees regarding their health, safety and welfare in the work place.”

Gawler Council chief executive officer Stephen Kerrigan said there have been staffing issues at the council but would not comment further on Mr Russell’s letter.

"There have been a number of matters which have resulted in staff leaving the employment of council,” he said.

“Most of those have been negotiated; some of those are related to confidential matters."

According to an expenditure statement, the council had budgeted $5000 in 2009-2010 for industrial relations-related legal fees, however the cost blew out to about $40,000.

In terms of overall legal fees, council had budgeted $129,200 during this period, however the figure reached about $348,500.

In 2010-2011, the council has put aside $246,300 for legal costs.

In other news, the council deferred a further revision of its code of conduct policy at last week’s meeting. The council will consider revising a section of its code of conduct relating to how it handles allegations of a breach of the code.

Under the current policy, only the mayor can deal with such complaints.

Council staff have recommended council adopt amendments to the policy to cater for any absence of the mayor and allow matters to be referred to the independent Local Government Association governance panel.