A sweep made of the council’s Hovell St offices this week, made at the request of a male councillor, failed to find any bugging equipment.

Yesterday, two of the councillors, John Mahony and John de Kruiff said they did not believe the matter should be pursued further.

Cr Mahony said the information made public after a private meeting between the seven councillors and chief executive Peter Marshall was not of a commercially sensitive nature.

Both Cr Mahony and Cr de Kruiff said they had not made the initial request for the security sweep of the building, a request which had then been supported by the whole council.

However, Cr de Kruiff said he had inquired about six months ago as to whether “the room was ever swept”.

“It was not as if we have taken other precautions such as locking the door,” he said.

Cr Mahony said he hoped “the matter was closed” and any further inquiry was not needed.

“It was disappointing that matters we discussed, that we considered to be private within the council, had been made public,” he said.

“But there was no commercial significance whatsoever related to the matter. If there was, I would be inclined to take it far more seriously.

“The fact that an email was then delivered to Prime (Television) is a source of annoyance and disappointment.”

Acting Mayor Rodney Wangman did not respond to a question on whether he made a request for a sweep of the first and second floors of the council building.

Cr Wangman said he would not comment as to whether further investigation was warranted.

“I’m not commenting on that. I don’t think I wish to,” he said.

“The request was made and the action was taken and as to whether all councillors would be concerned that their discussions taken in confidence would be made public, of course they would be.”

Victorian Local Government Minister Candy Broad said yesterday a request made for a search of listening devices “indicates there is a serious situation”.

Ms Broad said while she did not know details of the situation at Wodonga council, there was provision under the Local Government Act for councils to have confidential meetings about commercially sensitive matters or matters which needed to be considered in confidence.

“It’s important that councils have the capacity to have confidential meetings,” she said.

Ms Broad said the Act provided for serious penalties for breaching its requirements for considering matters in confidence.

“Certainly in the time I have been Local Government Minister a number of councils have brought matters to my attention for investigation where significant matters that were considered in confidence were provided to people outside in conflict with the Act and my department has investigated those matters as serious matters under the Act,” she said.