Councillor resigns over private 'bikini' message to teen
A private message to a teenage girl about "bikini photos” has cost an Adelaide councillor his job.
Julian Carbone has handed in his resignation to Burnside City Council, making the announcement on Facebook on Thursday afternoon.
It comes just days after he rejected calls from fellow councillors to quit over the alleged inappropriate text sent to a 17-year-old girl.
Mr Carbone had previously claimed that the message, which read “lots of bikini photos - but it’s so damn cold at the moment hey,” was not meant for the teen when it was sent from his Instagram account late last year.
He also argues that his social media accounts were hacked.
The allegations against the councillor sparked an investigation which found he had breached the code of conduct.
The report also discovered that he followed a number of social media accounts that would be considered inappropriate in the work environment.
“I humbly apologise for the text that was sent, and I apologise for any distasteful and inappropriate profiles that my social media platforms have been associated with,” he said on Facebook.
“None of this was intentional, on purpose or with any unwholesome or unsavoury motivations.
“All of this has been one big unintentional mistake, a lack of due diligence and just simply, naivety.
“For all of this, I am humbly sorry.”
In announcing his resignation, which Mr Carbone described as one of the hardest decisions he has ever had to make, he said the pressure had become too much for his family.
“The recent media reports covering the recent Code of Conduct and my social media accounts being linked to inappropriate and fake profiles, has brought significant pain and distress to my wife Angela and our baby, my wider family and the Burnside Council,” he explained.
“So I have decided it is time for me to put their interests ahead of my own.”
Mr Carbone had been politically involved in the Burnside community since 1999, and had served two terms on the Burnside Council.
On Tuesday, he took to Facebook to say that his Instagram page had become “overrun and riddled with fake profiles,” all of which he had “nothing to do with”.
As such, he said that he had made the conscious decision to remove his account.
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