The code of conduct complaints were made between March and August 2023.

Two of the complaints were dismissed by Dubbo Regional Council in the early stages, however, the other two were investigated by a conduct reviewer. The nature of the complaints is confidential.

After being investigated by the conduct reviewer it was determined no further action should be taken.

The council spent $16,170 to deal with the two issues.

Council budgets $50,000 each year to deal with code of conduct complaints.

Councillor Jess Gough is hoping to shake up the Code of Conduct complaints process.

At the Local Government NSW conference in November, Dubbo council will seek support from councils across the state for complaints to be dealt with by the Office of Local Government.

Cr Gough also wants a rule brought in that limits the number of unsuccessful complaints an individual can make in a single council term to three.

"As it currently stands, if a complaint comes in our CEO and our staff have to deal with it and determine if it gets passed on or they look at it internally, which I don't see as fair for either party, for the local councillors or the staff," Cr Gough said in August.

"Taking it out of the local government's hands completely saves us time, it saves us money and stress."

The first point of contact when dealing with complaints about any of the council staff or the organisation itself is council's internal ombudsman.

The ombudsman position started in Dubbo in September 2017.

Council publishes its complaint statistics every quarter "for transparency both within council and in the broader community".

In the 2022/23 financial year there were five code of conduct complaints. It cost council $5500.

In 2021/22 there were nine, costing $102,000 and in 2020/21 the 53 code of conduct complaints put council $230,000 out of pocket.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.