The legality of a flyer circulated in the lead-up to the recent Federation Council survey of Mulwala residents on their preferred route for the Yarrawonga-Mulwala replacement bridge remains unresolved.
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General manager Adrian Butler has confirmed further legal advice on the flyer backing the green route was "being sought and will be provided when available" in his formal response to a question without notice from Cr Fred Longmire.
Cr Longmire raised concerns about the flyer, which was circulated at the same time as the survey was being conducted, when the council voted 6-3 in favour of the green route after the former Corowa Shire had previously advocated for the grey route.
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The grey route remains the preferred alignment of the Victorian and NSW road authorities.
Cr Longmire said he would comment further at the council meeting on Tuesday on the issue when Mr Butler's response had been tabled for discussion.
"Council went to lengths to ensure any contact made to customer service staff through this period, was managed to inform that the flyer was not council produced or endorsed and council considers the material it sent with the survey form, was factual and enough to inform those who filled in a survey, of the current facts as council knew them," Mr Butler wrote.
"Council cannot definitely know if any of the survey respondents were misled by the green route flyer, as only they could answer that question."
The survey was conducted by the council and was not an Australian or NSW electoral commission process with the state body only used to provide the electoral roll data for the Mulwala postcode.
"To use the electoral commission to run a formal and legal process, similar to a council election or by-election, would have been extremely costly and considered cost prohibitive," Mr Butler said.
"Had this process occurred, any material produced by any third party may have been seen to be an issue.
"In this instance, the flyer distributed to promote the green route, regardless of its factual correctness or otherwise, was not seen as being required to have been something that required council contact or endorsement for."
